Medicare marketing fraud including medical device Medicare marketing fraud and drug company Medicare marketing fraud is increasing as medical device and pharmaceutical executives and representatives use fraudulent schemes and marketing techniques to manipulate doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, and other health care providers. These fraudulent marketing schemes are designed to increase the use of off label marketing of medications and the use or over use of unsafe medical devices and drugs to obtain Medicare payments.
Pharmaceutical representatives, medical device marketing representatives, and marketing fraud are manipulating physicians to use more expensive and less safe drugs and medical devices. From providing false information to using young attractive and charismatic drug representatives and free gifts, drug companies and medical device companies are using advanced drug marketing schemes and techniques to push physicians to use new drugs and products to obtain as much Medicare money as possible. When these marketing techniques are used to push a dangerous drug or to push a drug or medical device for off-label purposes, it can be dangerous for the patient's health as well as can be the basis for a qui tam lawsuit or other lawsuit if the Medicare Marketing Fraud can be documented.
Free gifts, lunches, dinners, and drug samples from drug companies are common place in the World of the successful physician. Sales people and marketing representatives commonly seek to use free meals, drinks, marketing giveaways, and drug samples, to obtain the attention of a medical doctor and these free gifts can often influence a physician to use a new, more expensive, and less safe drug. A recent article, Prescribing Under the Influence By E. Haavi Morreim, thoughtfully discusses the potential influence direct or indirect that free meals and gifts from drug representatives and medical device representatives can have on physicians. These freebies combined with false marketing materials on a drug or medical device can often manipulate a medical doctor into prescribing drugs for off-label purposes, using an inferior or unsafe produce, or over prescribing a drug or medical device.
Pharmaceutical Marketing Executives and Medical Device Marketing Executives often use Attractive and Charismatic Marketing Representatives with Advanced Fraudulent Marketing Scripts to Encourage Medicare Fraud Including Off-label Drug Use and Over Prescribing of Medical Devices
Another technique that drug companies use to push their new drugs and implants include hiring attractive and charismatic drug representatives to push physicians through an advanced script that falsely presents a new medication or medical device as better and more safe than it actually is. The drug representatives are usually highly articulate and are able to use the skewed research from the drug marketing departments combined with befriending or flirting with the physician to push the doctor to use their company's new product regardless of safety or expense.
These advanced fraudulent scripts are often presented as well accepted scientific research including cites or references from authentic sounding publications. They are also often well thought out by drug marketing executives and medical device marketing executives then given to and rehearsed by the attractive and charismatic drug representatives or medical device representative for the sole purpose of manipulating the medical doctor into prescribing more of the drug for off-label purposes or the medical device.
Through experience the drug marketing departments have also devised Medical Doctor Profiling schemes that they can use to determine what best motivates a particular physician and use this information combined with advanced marketing techniques to manipulate the physician without the medical doctor even realizing that they are being manipulated. These techniques include understanding that some medical doctors are research oriented while others are politically motivated, financially motivated, career motivated, or relationally motivated. By understanding a medical doctor's predispositions, interests, and motivations, a drug marketing department or medical device marketing department can use or manipulate a medical doctor based on their profiled information. Examples of these drug marketing department and medical device marketing department profiling and manipulations include:
Research Motivated Medical Doctor - The Marketing Departments will often create research with skewed data from the drug company to push the research motivated physician that relies strongly on science and research to make their decisions. The marketing representatives will also often invite the research motivated physician to publish in selected publications or to speak at sponsored medical conferences.
Politically and Career Motivated Medical Doctor - Marketing Departments will often create professional and social events, activities, and opportunities to advance the physician's ability to expand their political activities and career.
Relationally Motivated Medical Doctor - Drug marketing departments will not only find marketing representatives that are attractive and charismatic, but will also find drug representative with similar interests as well as hire family members or friends of the relationally motivated physician.
The above techniques and many more are all methods that drug marketing departments and medical device marketing executives use to gain the attention of and influence on medical doctors. These marketing techniques combined with fraudulent marketing research and other fraudulent practices can often work to manipulate a medical doctor into prescribing drugs for off label purposes as well as using unsafe medical devices or over using medical devices.
Through Medicare Marketing Fraud Whistle Blower Lawsuits, Off Label Medicare Marketing Fraud Qui Tam Lawsuits, and other Medicare Health Care Fraud Lawsuits, hundreds of billions of dollars have been recovered from dishonest pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, health insurance companies, health providers, individuals and organizations that have committed Medicare health care fraud and stolen large amounts of money from the government.
It is extremely important that Whistle Blowers continue to expose fraudulent marketing practices, billing practices and unnecessary treatments that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
Health Care Fraud and Pharmaceutical Off Label Fraud Law Suits (Fraud Costs Tax Payers and Consumers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars)
Health Care Expenses in the United States have increased to be over Two Trillion ($2,000,000,000,000.00) Dollars each year. This amount continues to rise as pharmaceutical companies have made large profits. One of the reasons that the pharmaceutical companies are making such large profits is that they have begun aggressive marketing campaigns that not only promote drugs for the medication's intended purpose, but aggressive push doctors to prescribe drugs for off label purposes.
From a taxpayer stand point, health care fraud costs taxpayers between $60 billion and $100 billion each year. This cost increases dramatically when you include other forms of health care fraud including insurance fraud and fraud on patients.