Three Medi-Cal officials accepted free flights, hotel rooms and meals from nonprofit business groups funded by drug makers, California Watch reports. The officials are directly involved in Medi-Cal’s policy and purchase of billions of dollars worth of prescription drugs for low-income patients.
The trips were funded by chapters of the American Medicaid Pharmacy Administrators Association. Corporate executives supplied about $1.8 million to the groups to fund conventions attended by state pharmacy officials from California and other states. Besides drug makers, health insurers and technology companies with state contracts also help fund the conferences, according to the article.
According to California Watch, a Medi-Cal spokesman confirmed that pharmacy officials have taken similar trips—around a dozen of them—for at least the past four years. However, trips have only recently been reported under a strict new gift-reporting rule of the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
The Medi-Cal spokesman, Norman Williams, defended the conferences as good for information sharing, and said they’ve led to cost savings. He also denied that officials were influenced by pharmaceutical companies paying the conference bills.
The story was reported in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED public radio. The story and related information is here.
In a separate blog post, California Watch noted that California officials aren’t the only ones flying and dining on Big Pharma’s dime.
“Officials from at least 20 other states were at a recent corporate-funded conference in Wisconsin. Also, Medicaid officials from New York, Massachusetts, Alaska and many more hold leadership roles with the nonprofit Medicaid Pharmacy Administrators Association groups that collect corporate registration fees and, in turn, pay for state officials’ travel.”
Lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Texas have brought to light questionable relationships between state pharmacy officials and drug companies.
