Physicians have declared for the first time that they will not accept any money, directly or indirectly, from pharmaceutical companies.
In a joint news conference on Monday, the Korean Medical Association and the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences said they would stamp out the deeply entrenched practice of doctors taking kickbacks from drug companies in return for prescribing their products.
The two organizations pledged to create a code of ethics to strengthen disciplinary measures against members who continue to receive kickbacks or other forms of payments, including lavish dinners, gifts and industry-sponsored overseas junkets.
The voluntary clean-up pledge by physicians is long overdue but welcome. Thus far, the government has staged anti-kickback campaigns several times to induce drug companies as well as doctors to make voluntary efforts to end the illegal practice.
But each time, doctors have refused to participate in these drives, strongly suggesting that they had no qualms about receiving payments from pharmaceutical companies.
Whether their perception has changed or not remains to be seen. Yet the fact that physicians have pledged to fight against kickbacks on their own is meaningful.
The two medical groups’ move came amid an ongoing crackdown on corporate payments to doctors by a joint investigation team of prosecutors, police and health officials.
The team has recently exposed scandals involving hundreds of physicians who were alleged to have received illegal money from three major pharmaceutical companies ― Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., CJ CheilJedang Corp. and Daehwa Pharmaceutical Co.
The nation’s largest drug company, Dong-A is suspected of having offered 4.8 billion won in kickbacks to hundreds of doctors. To disguise its illegal practice, the company used a thinly veiled ploy ― rewarding doctors for their participation in the production of educational videos for its employees.
CJ CheilJedang, another major player in the domestic drug industry, used corporate credit cards to pay rebates to physicians. Investigators found 266 doctors bought goods and services totaling 4.3 billion won through the company’s credit cards.
Daehwa is accused of having offered cash or gift certificates amounting to more than 900 million won to some 1,000 doctors and pharmacists.
These are just the tip of the iceberg. In 2007, the Fair Trade Commission estimated the annual amount of kickbacks paid by domestic drug companies at 2.2 trillion won or 20 percent of their yearly sales revenues.
To stem the collusion between drug companies and physicians, the National Assembly amended the Medical Service Act in 2011 and made physicians subject to more stringent punishment, such as suspension of license, when found to have received illegal payments from companies.
But the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been reluctant to discipline law-breaking doctors. Since 2011, the prosecution has referred to the ministry a total of 3,134 unscrupulous doctors for punishment. But penalties were meted out to 172 of them.
Doctors’ pledge to clean up their act was obviously motivated by the recent series of scandals. Whatever their motivation, their pledge offers a good chance to renew efforts to eradicate a practice that has been plaguing the medical and pharmaceutical circles.
Yet it would not be easy for physicians to quit their old habits as long as they are exposed to temptations from drug companies. In this regard, the two medical groups’ proposal that physicians, drug companies and the government form a consultative body to address the problem deserves consideration. The government needs to follow up on it.
