Genentech Offers Secret Rebates for Eye Drug

[RacingAZ]

I just read the news about the top Medicare billers and this story from years ago is somewhat linked to the Medicare billing story.

How is this practice not illegal? It amounts to a kick back scheme.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/business/04eye.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

If we do this on products / materials that we specify on our projects, I think our licenses would be yanked by the State board.

 

[IRstuff]

Incentives and rebates are not specifically bribes, so they're allowed. Not a whole lot different than rebates we used to be able to get for most, if not all, of purchase price for various things like software, etc.

TTFN
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[kylesito]

Rebates are not illegal.

The fact that he almost exclusively prescribed this product in what appears to be inflated amounts just to take advantage of the system, however, is quite questionable.

It's not a case of "if" we would lose our license. Just how fast it would take to clear the state boards.

PE, SE
Eastern United States

"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi

 

[RacingAZ]

I do understand rebates. I actually just bought software the other day with a rebate offer and being the one who paid for it, will eventually get the rebate. Not the person who recommended the software title to me, for the task that I was trying to do.

The scheme on that story that I posted is different. The prescriber is the one reaping the rebates not the end payer, which in that case is Medicare (or the taxpayers). So by following along their scheme, I should be able to specify say, a specific brand of steel deck then receive a rebate from the mfr (if they offer one) and be on the clear? I don't think so but this is exactly what those doctors are doing.

 

[IRstuff]

Change "rebate" to "commission" and the results are perfectly acceptable in business. It's not that different than the car salesman making his commission by getting you to buy the extended warranty. US drug prices are generally jacked up by drug companies, just because they know they can get away with it, and people in the US can generally get insurance that pays for it. Drug companies have armies of reps that ply doctors' offices with free food and trinkets to get them to prescribe their particular drug.

TTFN
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[JohnRBaker]

It's like a salemen's incentive. When I was still in school back in the late 60's and I was co-oping I managed to get a job in the evenings and weekends selling radios and other small electrical appliances in a department store. Now the job paid an hourly wage, but you could earn some extra cash by 'pushing' certain items. For example, there were a couple of the portable radios that if you sold one of them you'd get an extra $2 each. Other, more expensive items paid as much as $5 extra. During the course of a summer, those 'incentive' payments could really add up.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
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