Evil
There is evil walking in the world. So much evil.
This article tells about the latest dastardly deeds and in this instance, it includes a tech company helping a drug company pitch its opioid drugs to doctors so they can be prescribed to patients.
The pursuit of profits is killing us.
“Its maker, a software company called Practice Fusion, was paid by a major opioid manufacturer to design it in an effort to boost prescriptions for addictive pain pills — even though overdose deaths had almost tripled during the previous 15 years, creating a public-health disaster.”
“Health-Records Company Pushed Opioids to Doctors in Secret Deal With Drugmaker”, Bloomberg, Emma Court, January 29, 2020.
As I understand it, the tech company developed a software that would pose questions and then prescribe some course of actions based upon the answers. Or maybe it was just a pop-up asking questions about pain. It’s not clear exactly how the software worked but it seems like it provided options for treatments, one of which was to prescribe some opioids for pain treatment.
The point of the pop-up was to drive doctors toward prescribing more opioids. The doctors didn’t know there was a “secret” deal between the tech company and the drug company, which is suspected to be Purdue, the company that the Sacklers owned and profited off of. This deal was made even after Purdue paid one of the largest fines back in 2007 for its false advertising on OxyContin.
“The idea was to get the opioid maker’s pain drugs to certain kinds of patients: ones who weren’t taking opioids, or those being prescribed the company’s less profitable products. It also aimed to secure longer prescriptions…”
“Health-Records Company Pushed Opioids to Doctors in Secret Deal With Drugmaker”, Bloomberg, Emma Court, January 29, 2020.
In my mind, it sounds like the pharma company continued to try to manipulate the doctors and end users to hooked them on the drugs, despite being charged.
This is pure evil.
The ending paragraph of the article indicates that the tech company had deals with 14 drug companies, so what else is out there?
End Note:
I’m now starting on the second phase of the ACA reporting which is the electronic submission of the 1094/1095C forms. So, I’m still “under duress” as I try to finish this up and thus have little time for anything else. My posting schedule will still be limited (unless I just need to take a break or there is something I just need to respond to).
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