Connecticut Breaks Up Hospital "Secret Society"

When it comes to conflicts of interest, this blog focuses most of its attention on scientists. But they're not the only ones feeding at the trough. It turns out that some of the nation's leading hospital executives had formed a for-profit consulting group to advise hospital suppliers on how to get more sales from . . . you guessed it! . . . the institutions they ran.

It looks like their pocket-lining at the health care system's expense is coming to an end. Today's post on the Health Care Renewal blog highlights the Connecticut attorney general's fine and settlement agreement with the group that should bust up this "anticompetitive, secret society."

Speaking of conflicts of interest, I was stunned to learn today that Uwe Reinhardt, who downplayed health care cost control at this week's Families USA conference, serves on the boards of several firms that may not be all that interested in hearing a cost-control message. They are: Boston Scientific, Triad Hospitals, and Amerigroup. None of this information was disclosed in his last major article in Health Affairs, entitled "The Pricing Of U.S. Hospital Services: Chaos Behind A Veil Of Secrecy."

Now, it could easily be argued that an economist who serves on the board of directors of a hospital system like Triad hasn't being swayed by that affiliation when he writes a hard-hitting article attacking hospitals opaque pricing systems and how they "would have to be changed to accommodate the increasingly popular concept of 'consumer-directed health care.'" But isn't that something readers ought to decide, especially when two high-ranking Triad officials are thanked in the acknowledgements for their "constructive criticism" of the manuscript?

The Health Affairs author guidelines call for writers to tell the editors about their conflicts, and the editors "may" print it. I think that popular and prestigious journal should amend its guidelines to say "will" print it, because in this case, they definitely "should" have.