Criminal Overworld: America's Health Related Criminal Cartels Pressured To Name All Their "Johns"
Linda
Pressured To Name All Their "Johns"
http://grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=24413
For Immediate Release
December 8, 2009
Grassley works for disclosure of drug company payments to medical
groups
WASHINGTON --- Senator Grassley has asked 33 medical groups for
information about the financial backing they get from the
pharmaceutical, medical device and insurance industries.
{....}
This week, the senator’s letters of inquiry were sent to the American
Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Alzheimer’s Association, the
American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, the American
Academy of Dermatology, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American
College of Surgeons, the American Dental Association, the American
Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association, the American
Heart Association, the American Hospital Association Inc., the
American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association,
the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Society of
Colon and Rectal Surgeons, the American Society of Consultant
Pharmacists, the American Society of Health–System Pharmacists, the
American Society of Hypertension, Inc., the American Society of
Nephrology, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Children and
Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Depression and
Bipolar Support Alliance, the Heart Rhythm Society, Mental Health
America, NARSAD, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the
National Organization for Rare Disorders, the North American Spine
Society, Screening for Mental Health Inc., the National Center for
Mental Checkups at Columbia University (TeenScreen), The Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society, and the American Cancer Society.
Here is the text of Grassley’s letter.
December 7, 2009
Dear _________________:
The United States Senate Committee on Finance (Committee) has
jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid programs and, accordingly,
a responsibility to the more than 100 million Americans who receive
health care coverage under these programs. As Ranking Member of the
Committee, I have a duty to protect the health of Medicare and
Medicaid beneficiaries and safeguard taxpayer dollars authorized by
Congress for these programs.
For the last three years, the Committee has been looking into various
aspects of the pharmaceutical industry, including consulting
arrangements, and industry funding for Continuing Medical Education
(CME). My inquiry was spurred, in part by press accounts documenting
the lack of transparency in the relationships between the
pharmaceutical industry and nonprofit organizations. For instance, in
April 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that industry
representatives, including ten major drug companies, formed a
coalition to promote looser restrictions on off-label marketing.[1]
The coalition asked the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to
speak in favor of this issue.
On October 6th of this year, I sent letters to all fifty state
chapters of NAMI asking them to disclose income from pharmaceutical
companies. In that letter, I explained that NAMI National receives
almost two-thirds of its funding from the drug industry.[2] I learned
recently that a few days after I sent those letters, one of the
founders of NAMI and member of the NAMI National Board of Directors
emailed his resignation, stating that he was shocked at NAMI’s
reliance on pharmaceutical industry funding. In particular he said:
“This financial dependency presents a number of problems.”
In response to my concerns, NAMI began to disclose publicly on its
website, any amount of funding exceeding $5,000 that it received from
pharmaceutical companies and other foundations. This decision in
favor of transparency by NAMI is encouraging.
In April of this year, the Institute of Medicine issued a report
endorsing transparency and stating that protections against conflicts
can be established without inhibiting productive relationships between
medicine and industry to improve medical knowledge and care. I am
hoping you can assist me in this effort by providing additional
insights into these relationships as well as any changes in
transparency that your organization may be planning for in the
future. Operating with transparency sends a message that there is
nothing to hide.
Accordingly, I would appreciate an accounting of industry funding
that pharmaceutical, medical device companies, foundations established
by these companies or the insurance industry have provided to the
(Organization) (The term “industry funding” means any transfer of
value, including but not limited to grants, donations, and sponsorship
for meetings or programs, etc.) This request covers the period of
January 2006 to the present.
Because reporting practices vary widely from one charitable
organization to another, I would appreciate you also placing this
income into a chart, detailing annual amounts of industry funding.
For each year, please provide the following information for
(Organization):
1) Year;
2) Name of company;
3) Amount of funding; and
4) Reason(s) that the funding was provided.
In addition, please explain (Organization) policies for accepting
industry funding and the disclosure requirements of your top
executives and board members by answering the following questions. For
each question, please respond by first repeating the enumerated
question followed by the appropriate answer. Again, this request
covers the period of January 2006 to the present:
1) Please describe the policies for accepting industry funding and
whether or not (Organization) allows companies to place restrictions
or provide guidance on how funding will be spent.
2) If (Organization) allows companies to place restrictions on
industry funding, then please explain all restrictions and/or guidance
for each transfer of value from industry. For every transfer of value
with a restriction, please provide the following information: year of
transfer, name of company, and restriction placed on funding.
3) Please explain what policies, if any that(Organization) plans to
adopt to ensure transparency of funding in order to provide a greater
public trust in the independence of your organization.
4) Please explain your policies on disclosure of outside income by
your top executives and board members.
5) Please provide the disclosures of outside income filed with your
organizations by your top executives and board members.
In cooperating with the Committee’s review, no documents, records,
data or
information related to these matters shall be destroyed, modified,
removed or otherwise
made inaccessible to the Committee.
I look forward to hearing from you by no later than December 21, 2009.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
United States Senator
Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance
Sir Arthur C.B.E. Wholeflaffers A.S.A.
> Criminal Overworld: America's Health Related Criminal Cartels
> Pressured To Name All Their "Johns"
>
I think some of these spOOks post on these newsgroups!
We will continue the struggle into 2010 and beyond. We MUST win this
War against the evil-doers, or else it's bye-bye THIS ISLAND EARTH!!!
Escape_the_Cult_Now
scientology abuse.
http://whyaretheydead.info/misc/Factnet/FACTQ.TXT