Saturday, August 11, 2007
Why aren't meded agencies held to ethics standards as well?
I have run a meded agency for 20 plus years now and run many symposia pre OIG and post OIG...I have always found and most of my client's agree that for a meded program to be effective "the higher the science" the better...The less commercial the programs are the bigger the audiences and the better value there is for the sponsoring company...It is like that today and it was like that in the 70's !!
I have seen however much of my competition, create bogus agencies, create transparent divisions, create in house CME accreditation and say to the clients we have appropriate "firewalls set up" within our organization to adhere to the OIG guidelines !!
What a load of crap !! How can an agency who is making money from its labor (hopefully), from a promotional service for let's say for example Novartis, create a "New Division" with a new name, at the same address, do CME now for ie... Novartis and be legitimate ?? I have even heard of examples where agencies have even created new corporate filing structures to "get around" rules set in place by Pharma companies to separate CME from promotional sides of activities.
These things are all a sham to subvert the OIG and to basically shaft the pharma companies who would be slapped by Surbane-Oxley and the OIG. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see or hear some medical promotions agency bending the "rules"..that is why we (my agency) either do just promotions for a client or just med ed for a client. I have to look at myself in the mirror every morning and work with the client's best interest in mind (sorry for the self plug)...but it just gauls me how these mega agencies get away with this crap ! And screw their clients in the process. We always try to use a university affiliation for our CME and that we we have no fiduciary connection to the Med ed accreditor at all.
I have seen however much of my competition, create bogus agencies, create transparent divisions, create in house CME accreditation and say to the clients we have appropriate "firewalls set up" within our organization to adhere to the OIG guidelines !!
What a load of crap !! How can an agency who is making money from its labor (hopefully), from a promotional service for let's say for example Novartis, create a "New Division" with a new name, at the same address, do CME now for ie... Novartis and be legitimate ?? I have even heard of examples where agencies have even created new corporate filing structures to "get around" rules set in place by Pharma companies to separate CME from promotional sides of activities.
These things are all a sham to subvert the OIG and to basically shaft the pharma companies who would be slapped by Surbane-Oxley and the OIG. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see or hear some medical promotions agency bending the "rules"..that is why we (my agency) either do just promotions for a client or just med ed for a client. I have to look at myself in the mirror every morning and work with the client's best interest in mind (sorry for the self plug)...but it just gauls me how these mega agencies get away with this crap ! And screw their clients in the process. We always try to use a university affiliation for our CME and that we we have no fiduciary connection to the Med ed accreditor at all.
