Corruption and Medicine

Via the New York Times, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is in deep:

UMDNJ effectively becomes the first public university in the nation to be placed under federal oversight, according to a Justice Department spokesman in Washington. With its five regional campuses, more than 4,500 students and a $1.6 billion annual budget, UMDNJ is the nation's largest health care university.

If criminal charges had been brought, the university would be disqualified from receiving the federal aid that makes up much of its budget.

For nearly a year, federal agents have been investigating accusations that administrators at the university doled out patronage jobs and tens of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to their political allies, sometimes for work that was not performed.

Visit Health Care Renewal, who's been following the case for awhile, for more.

In the meantime, I have a question for the seasoned health policy vets: there appears to be a large number of improper conduct events lately -- Vioxx, Guidant, Cleveland Clinic, Aubrey Blumsohn, and now UMDNJ. Are there more incidents than usual, or is this standard corruption fare?

Comments

[Lisa]

This isn't as uncommon as most people think. Take a look at the DHHS OIG website (www.oig.hhs.gov) and look under their "Fraud Prevention and Detection" sectoin. There you will find tons of information on shady activity that has been investigated and the laundry list of health care entities that are under Corporate Integrity Agreements. Also noteworthy is the hefty amounts of money these foul-players dole out under OIG's Civil Monetary Penalty authority.
I think since many corporations have come under fire, transparency is the big ticket item--so more and more press coverage is inevitable.

[Roy M. Poses MD]

My experiences interviewing physicians, which lead to the formation of our email list, and then the Health Care Renewal blog (http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/) suggest that it has been increasingly common since the 1980s. (There is little quantitative data on mismanagement or corruption in health care, but see the results of the ACPE survey, starting with the HCR link here: http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/04/major-acpe-survey-on-unethical.html) But now they may be more often reported. And Health Care Renewal has been trying to gather some of the most striking examples together.

[Kate]

Thanks, Roy. Keep up the great work!