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I'm not much of one for conspiracy theories, but given the shenanigans proven to have been perpetrated by drug companies, MS Centers and neurologists in the US (see http://bit.ly/kBCrlj and http://on.fb.me/j3wzqX and http://on.fb.me/k3aLXi), is it unreasonable to ask MS Societies, Clinics and neuros to show transparency, to show that they have NOT been involved in this kind of chicanery?

By the way, though we can shake our heads at how the US pharma and MS Center executives and doctors involved seem to be getting away with a simple wag of the finger, Canadians should recognize that our own justice system doesn't appear to be interested in looking into this at all!

Any good Canadian journalists out there who might be interested in "following the money"?

“Health care decisions must be based solely upon what is best for the individual patient and not on which pharmaceutical company is paying the doctor the biggest kickback,” said Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. “All consumers have the right to know that their health care provider’s judgment about medications they should take has not been undermined by kickbacks from pharmaceutical manufacturers.”

I was twigged by the phrase "high-prescribing doctors". I remembered hearing a person in the insurance business refer to some people as "high claimers". Then I realized: that is what is going on here. It is a claims war. If some doctors fix people and claim payment from insurance companies for that, it threatens the ability of other doctors to get patients to claim other fixes of a more chemical nature. If they are being partly paid that way, it threatens their livelihood!

Some may scoff that such bribery is going on. But according to this news story, and if one looks at what EricaSlovakia posted, it is extremely common. Considered as part of the normal accounting structure, as a standard cost of doing business.

I figure consumers should have the realism to know that "their health care provider’s judgment about medications they should take" has "been undermined by kickbacks from pharmaceutical manufacturers."

"Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) was laundering money for kickbacks to neurologists by Merck Serono"

Really, seriously: read the weblinks -- here, I'll repeat them. (see http://bit.ly/kBCrlj and http://on.fb.me/j3wzqX and http://on.fb.me/k3aLXi)

ErikaSlovakia posted http://tinyurl.com/4um9gob

Does anybody know of, or know, an investigative reporter?

NARCOMS has been collecting information on me via questionnaires for years. I had been wondering about where the MS clinic was getting its information on me from. I had suspected that there were conversations about me between my doctor an another I was scheduled to see as a 'second opinion' - considering he seemed to know all about me and was not even interested in the MRIs I hand-carried from Ottawa and had also acquired from Kingston.

I now believe that there is a network of doctors keeping a close eye and a computerized track of their 'MS' patients, using electronic surveillance and the Internet. The expense is justified, given the kickbacks involved. I think my privacy and perhaps even my safety has been seriously compromised. I do not know what to do at this point.

The other thing other clinic patients might be interested to know: (I had a neurologist once who spent a good part of every appointment reading aloud to me from a typewritten transcript of the last appointment. I knew *that* couldn't last.) A guy I know told me about another guy who had spent months and months installing a Dictaphone system at the Ottawa General Hospital (where I had my neurology appointments). I am pretty sure they have every appointment I ever had there on audio tape. So every word I or my wife, or Dr. Freedman or Dr. MacLean ever spoke, including the time they were not in the room and we thought we were alone.

OK, 1eye, now you're starting to sound paranoid. Maybe you think you have reason to be, but I think that, if it exists, it should be much easier to find and expose clear evidence of kickbacks and bribes than about an international conspiracy to monitor what we say in a doctor's office. Let's keep our eyes on the ball, and let's not scare off a serious journalist who may be interested in following up on kickbacks, bribery and/or gifts from drug companies that may be influencing the care we receive.
...Ted

And, for the record, I'm quite certain that my neuro has never been in touch with Osama bin Laden.

Paranoid. I must be. That's the ticket. Yes. Must be all these heart pills I'm on.

I would not suspect my former neurologists of terrorism either. I do know, for a fact, that the rooms in the General are wired for sound. The rest is all idle speculation.

1eye if even a quarter of what you suspect is true it is chilling. Note that Mark Freedman is the Director of Membership for the Consortium, Michael Yeung is the Co-Chair of Education and was a member of the CIHR non-expert panel. NARCOMS is a project of the Consortium and Dr. Gary Cutter is their stats person. Isn't he the one who told Joan Beal in Italy that the MS patients were all just numbers to him and isn't he the one who crunched the states for Buffalo's "CCSVI causes MS" study? Note that Freedman is also the Director of the Ottawa General's MS Clinic, a medical advisor for the MS Society, past Chairman of the Canadian Network of MS Clinics, recipient of an MSSC grant to study CCSVI (which would be comical if it wasn't so tragic for so many people) - why am I not surprised that the Consortium was laundering money? Why am I not surprised that Serono was involved - it is one of the six pharmas that produce the wonderful drugs that help us so much, if they don't kill us first. Serono is a recipient of the $10 billion per year MS Industry. We have been called cultists and worse for suspecting such conspiracies. I feel vindicated.