Friday, September 07, 2007

Ben and Jerrys Aisle 5, Hot Pockets Aisle 3, Nurse Practitioner Aisle 1. A double standard for doctors that want to dispense…

Times they are a changing….
Revolution Health buys Minute Clinics to reach customer in pharmacies. Express Care and ShopRite partner to provide health care in ShopRite super markets…
It is happening everywhere…
Here is an interesting thought.
Pharmacies can employ healthcare clinics and nurse practitioners to get more customers into their pharmacy …and sell them other items as well as pharmaceuticals and “healthcare”. Pharmacies don’t get it why AMA and doctors protest … and yet is it not a double standard though..when doctors want to sell pharmaceuticals to their patients…. Here the pharmacies protest that the doctors have a conflict of interest..and should not dispense from their office…
In both scenarios..if you boil it down , it is about… a bigger piece of the pie…pharmacies want to participate in the upside of medicine under the guise of convenience and affordability for their customers… and doctors want to participate in the upside of dispensing under the guise of convenience and affordability for their patients..meanwhile they both scream "holier than thou" in their efforts to keep either one from pursuing each other… the irony..both might be providing convenience and affordability in the midst of clear conflicts of interest, self referral abuses, stark law issues…