How to Know if Your Doctor Gets a Kick-Back from a Pharmaceutical Company
NEW YORK (MainStreet)A new database created by the nonprofit, independent newsgroup Pro Publica gives patients insight into how many prescriptions their doctor wrote and which drugs he or she prescribed and how their doctor's prescription writing compares with his or her peers. The database is based on Medicare prescriptions and may be especially useful to the elderly and their caretakers.
prescriptions their doctor wrote and which drugs he or she prescribed and how their doctor's prescription writing compares with his or her peers. The database is based on Medicare prescriptions and may be especially useful to the elderly and their caretakers.
That's because certain drugs can cause dizziness and fainting and can lead to falls in the elderly population, and all too often, doctors prescribe these drugs when other alternatives are available, according to the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). The AGS lists antipsychotics to treat the symptoms of dementia and benzodiazepines to treat insomnia, agitation or delirium as two drug types to watch out for. Also of concern to the AGS are medications used to achieve tight glycemic control in elderly patients with Type 2 diabetes and antimicrobials to treat asymptomatic bacteriuria, neither of which proves beneficial according to the AGS.
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Pro Publica's Prescriber Checkup database shows which drugs doctors prescribed to Medicare patients in 2010. Medicare Part D prescribing accounts for 25% of all drugs prescribed in the U.S., according to the Pro Publica report.
In addition to seeing which doctors often prescribed drugs that can be dangerous to the elderly and which doctors have a lot of experience with a particular drug, the database can be used to determine which doctors prescribe brand name versus generic drugs.
Consumers can go one step further and search Pro Publica's Dollars for Docs database to see if a specific doctor has received money from a pharmaceutical company in order to assess whether or not the doctor may be financially influenced by drug manufacturers.
--Written by S.Z. Berg, author of College on the Cheap, for MainStreet