The following open letter from Dr. Sanford Siegel, President of the Chesapeake Urology Associates, to Rep. Henry Waxman (R-CA), was pointed out to me this morning. I asked Dr. Siegel’s permission to post it in its entirety on ComeAcross, and he agreed. I’m struck by how true this letter rings. My father is a doctor. He works hard, seven days a week. He wakes up at 5 in the morning and usually works till 10 or 11 at night. Whatever “free lunches” he gets when he goes to get CMEs (Continuing Medical Education) or to attend conferences and seminars in order to become a better doctor are well deserved. On the other hand, I’m not so sure how well deserved the salaries of our politicians really are, considering their work ethic, isolation from public sentiment, and openness to lobbyists. But then again, the tactic of distracting the public has been employed by politicians for ages, so this should be no surprise. Read Dr. Siegel’s letter, it’s an eye opener!

Dear Mr. Representative,

On Saturday July 29, 2006, there was an article on the front page of The Baltimore Sun entitled “Medical Salesmen Prescribe Lunches.” This article describes how the pharmaceutical representatives use free lunches to gain access to Doctors. In this article, you are quoted to say, “It’s obvious that drug companies provide these free lunches so their sales reps can get the Doctor’s ear and influence the prescribing practice. That’s not the way it should be done. Physicians should get their information from peer review and objective sources.” I am a physician, and we do get our information from peer reviewed journals and continuous medical education meetings. We are required to have 50 hours a year of continuing medical education. The reps simply supply valuable prescribing information about the use of the
drugs and their benefits.

Instead of insinuating impropriety on the part of Doctors and Pharmaceutical reps, maybe you should look into how your Congress functions. You are a member of the most abusive Congress in history. You are a member of Congress that will only work 76 days this entire year. That is the lowest number of days in history. They call this Congress, affectionately, the “Tuesday to Thursday Club,” as the Representatives come to work on Tuesday and leave Thursday afternoon. The lowest salary paid to a Congressman is $165,200/year. If you think I am misinformed, please refer to the ABC news report done on Saturday July 29th. They did the piece on, “Are we getting our monies worth?” Obviously, we are not.

The average salary for a Pediatrician is less than $100,000/year. They work 7-days-a- week, 48 to 50 weeks a year. They have not had a pay raise in 15 years. When was your last pay raise? We get “free” lunches from these Pharma Reps so we can learn about new drugs, their benefit to our patients, and where they will be harmful. Most of us will take 10-15 minutes a day for lunch, and most days we do not get lunch. We cannot see them during office time. Our days start at 7-8 in the morning and don’t end like other people’s work days. When we finish office hours, we go to the Hospital to see patients, and it does not end there, either. We then can go home and make phone calls to patients for an hour. We do this every day, 5-6 days a week. That is a far cry from your 76 days a year.

Your quote makes reference to the influence they have on us to use their drugs. Are you so naive to believe that a turkey wrap or a piece of dried out chicken parmesan will make us use a drug which we do not feel will be beneficial to our patients? Why is it legal for the airlines to give frequent flier miles for inducement to people to use that airline or for the restaurants who provide these Doctor lunches to have “frequent buyer” programs where “each dollar spent earns points that can be exchanged for movie tickets, gift certificates to Home Depot or Nordstrom or an ‘executive spa treatment,'” for the Reps who buy them? Should I believe that the junkets to Scotland for your colleagues to play golf, the lavish dinners they throw for members of Congress, the free airplane tickets or Super Bowl tickets, etc., do not influence you and your votes? Are you getting your information from, as you said, those “objective sources, the highly paid lobbyist?” How can you be so self-righteous? I am so insulted by your comments.

Like most Congressmen, Doctors are honest, hard-working people and dedicated to the people they serve. We do not abuse or take advantage of the system. Tell me what you would do without us? There may be a few bad apples, but the medical care in the United States is second to none. Is it made worse by these lunches? We have been hammered with 40% to 50% cuts in our reimbursement over the last 15 years. The Doctors share of the health care pie has shrunk from 30% to 8%. Overhead continues to soar. Healthcare insurance rates to my employees rose 24% this July. Two weeks later, I got a letter telling me this same company was reducing our reimbursement by 21%.

Dr. McGuire, the CEO of United Healthcare, was paid 1.6 BILLION (yes Billion) dollars last year. You must know that because CALPERS was so incensed they have filed a grievance with United Healthcare. Have you looked at them? Don’t you think that is just a tad more egregious than chicken parmesan?

This article has stirred a fire in me. I am angry that people of such influence, such as you, could attack us for something like lunches. There are so many important issues to address. Fix health care for the poor; bring peace to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East. Do something meaningful about these problems, and the historically low approval rating (26%) for this Congress may improve.

If you’d like to contact me to discuss this matter further, I can be reached at ssiegel585 [at] gmail.com or 410-581-1600.

Very Sincerely,

Sanford Siegel
President, Chesapeake Urology Associates

cc. Members of the 109th Congress
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Examiner
Baltimore Business Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times
The New York Times