Paul’s Pricing Dictionary: Remuneration

P 75x75Remuneration, n. A euphemism for kickbacks, particularly in Big Pharma.

Check out what Big Pharma is giving your doctor for  kickbacks. Find Your Doctor’s Payments out of the $7.52 billion/year that gets  kicked-back to doctors in the USA.

The first doctor I mentioned this to was fascinated that (a) I knew how much he was getting – which was basically only $500-$1000/year in sandwiches for the people in the office – but he was really excited to find out (b) how much his ex-wife who was a specialist in …. was getting, and he explained exactly why for medical reasons she’d be getting a ton and indeed she was.

Now, another doctor I use got $18,156 in 2013 in mainly “consultancy” from one supplier; the $44,644 in 2014 followed by only $373 in 2015. It makes you wonder what is going on …. and should I be concerned that my doctor’s kickbacks are going down?!? Does it affect the treatment he provides to me? … how much of this is reflected in what I pay my doctor for? Do I pay less or more because of the kickback? Do all patients have the same adjustment to their payments because of his kickbacks?

Another doctor of mine received little in 2013 & 2014 and all of a sudden gets $33K for Associated Research Funding. Am I part of the research? Before I accept any treatment or fulfill a prescription I presumably now need to check to see if his OEM is the company which paid him the $33K. So these kickbacks are certainly doing a good job undermining trust in one’s physicians.

In case you’re wondering why this is relevant to pricing, well, a lot of pricing roles in Big Pharma also include  kickback management: Director, Global Pricing & Market Access (Reimbursement Director) – Oncology for Amgen is just one example.

The length of the job description is interesting. To paraphrase Spike Milligan, it should have just said “Director, Pricing & Kickbacks” and saved us (me) the effort of reading it.

What’s the alternative? How about no kick-backs and lower prices?

 

 

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