"Kickbacks" to docs came from drug company?

>Apparently they are not illegal in Kentucky. My guy gets pens, calculators, clocks, calendars, the paper for the examining tables (complete with ads), and I noticed the little tuning fork they use to test reflexes came from a drug company. Lots of other junk as well.<

This is not the doctor putting that stuff where you can see it; it's his staff. Meanwhile, he's oblivious-- busy, distracted, moving from patient to patient during the day and totally not focusing on the stupid drug company pens that end up stuck in a container in the exam rooms or what his receptionist has sitting on her desk out front. I know this because I spent 25 years working in dental offices where the doctors wouldn't take time out of their day to even greet the pharmaceutical reps that'd come by. "Tell him I'm busy", or "Handle that for me, will ya?" was what they'd tell their staff members 9 times out of 10. And sure, we'd use the freebie pens and sometimes tack up the calendars, and maybe a calculator or clock would find its way onto the reception desk. Big deal. I pick up free advertising pens from my golf driving range and the place where I have my car serviced, too, but that doesn't mean I'm getting kickbacks for sending my friends there.

>Payola was widespread in the drug game as recently as a decade back.<

A decade. The times, they not only are a-changin', they HAVE changed.

>The case of the cardiologist I posted is not unique. A couple of years back, an entire hospital chain in California was in the same boat over unnecessary cardiac procedures.<

And? Yet? Therefore? As Ron observed, one bad apple does not a rotten bushel make. There are shysters in every profession; my own son works a part time job at a transmission repair shop where he's paid under the table for some unknown reason( and no, his Dad and I don't approve). Wherever you look you can find people who think they're above the law and that the IRS didn't mean them when they wrote the tax laws. There is a system of checks and balances in place-- professional governing boards in each state plus the attorney generals and law enforcement agencies are all ready willing and able to call those who break the law into account. There are also strict ethical standards that all doctors and hospitals have to adhere to or face the consequences, up to and including loss of licensure and padlocks on the doors.

>You just have more faith in doctors than I do.<

We all need to have our eyes wide open, of course. But I refuse to live my life being suspicious of everyone I come into contact with. I trust, until I see that I can no longer trust, and if that happens, I simply take my business elsewhere, but I certainly wouldn't hesitate to report someone, if I thought it was warranted. Unless we want to go live in the woods on a mountaintop somewhere like Grizzly Adams, I'm not sure what else we can do.