Kickbacks for doctors

The government is stepping up its crackdown on the long-standing practice of offering and receiving kickbacks in the medical community. Yet it remains to be seen whether the illegal practice will be uprooted this time, given that it is endemic and deep-rooted.

A joint investigation team of prosecutors, police and health officials are summoning about 100 doctors at hospitals and clinics across the nation on charges of receiving illegal commissions from Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., the nation’s largest pharmaceutical company. The doctors are accused of accepting money or kickbacks in other forms ― which are often called “rebates’’ here ― worth more than 3 million won each in exchange for prescribing the company’s medicines.

Some of them were already asked to appear before prosecutors for questioning and other doctors will be issued summons soon. This is actually the first large-scale investigation targeting doctors in connection with kickbacks.

Earlier this month, the prosecution indicted seven former and incumbent Dong-A executives ― two of them detained physically ― on charges of offering kickbacks to doctors and hospital officials.

The government has been implementing a dual punishment system since November 2010 to penalize doctors and pharmacists as well as drug companies. But the system has been almost unsuccessful in rooting out the practice in the medical industry. In fact, as many as 6,400 doctors and pharmacists have been found to have accepted kickbacks even after the system went into effect, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Amid mounting criticism against the rampant practice, methods of providing and receiving kickbacks between doctors and drug companies have become covert and elaborate. To avoid the investigation team’s pursuit, Dong-A Pharmaceutical hired four agencies to provide goods and services instead of cash.

For example, the company paid for a hospital’s interior renovation or bought other hospital medical equipment worth tens of millions of won, all through agencies. In some cases, Dong-A paid language study fees for the children of hospital officials and paid for trips by doctors’ families. Kickbacks offered by the company between 2009 and October last year to 1,400 hospitals and clinics in these ways amounted to 4.8 billion won.

Given that the “rebates’’ irregularity pushes up drug prices in general to the detriment of the public, the practice should be eradicated without fail. What is needed most is the government’s strong determination to punish doctors harshly under the principle of zero tolerance. Also, tougher administrative penalties such as tax audits and suspension of licenses must go with criminal punishment for doctors and pharmacists. <The Korea Times>