Business Ethics news and information

A Monterey County, Calif., public hospital district did $21 million in business over the past five years with firms in which its CEO and board members held financial interests, according to a state audit.
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Citing concerns that physicians will be discouraged from conducting research because of "potential mischaracterizations of their income," the Association of Clinical Research Organizations is calling for the CMS to exclude research on drugs not yet approved for sale by the Food and Drug...
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A bone-marrow registry and medical laboratory company that used fashion models wearing high heels and short skirts to recruit potential donors will pay the state of Massachusetts $520,000 for engaging in an improper marketing practice, state officials said.
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U.S. health officials said Monday that they were further delaying rules that would force drugmakers and device companies to report all payments and gifts to doctors.
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A sample review of the 334 ethics waivers HHS granted to its employees in the first year of the Obama administration found most did not follow federal documentation rules—specifically, ethics guidelines issued in the waning days of the Bush administration.
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AstraZeneca said it has started to disclose payments and other “transfers of value” made to physicians and healthcare organizations, including hospitals, in the U.S.
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HHS issued an updated final rule (PDF) aimed at “providing a framework for identifying, managing and ultimately avoiding” financial conflicts of interest among scientists conducting government-funded research.
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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) urged the Office of Management and Budget to continue to require a publicly available website that will track financial relationships between the drug industry and the researchers (PDF) who...
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Self-referral can be very tricky especially when there is a third-party payer in the mix; some providers can do it well while others do not.
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It's about time the legal department steps in to the picture (“Feds hit Michigan Blues with antitrust lawsuit,” Daily Dose, Oct. 18). There should be legal action taken against unsavory business practices in the healthcare sector just as in other business sectors. Sarbanes-Oxley...
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