The following links are from the American Medical Association's (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics:
- Opinion 8.063 - Sale of Health-Related Products From Physicians' Offices
and
- Opinion 8.06 - Prescribing and Dispensing Drugs and Devices
Here are a couple quotes from the Code of Medical Ethics:
"In-office sale of health-related products by physicians presents a financial conflict of interest, risks placing undue pressure on the patient, and threatens to erode patient trust and undermine the primary obligation of physicians to serve the interests of their patients before their own."
"Physicians may not accept any kind of payment or compensation from a drug company or device manufacturer for prescribing its products."
"Physicians should not urge patients to fill prescriptions from an establishment which has entered into a business or other preferential arrangement with the physician with respect to the filling of the physician’s prescriptions."
Doctors who choose to peddle USANA products to their patients break the Code of Medical Ethics. Because these doctors choose to put the interest of their personal business before the patient's own medical interest, it ruins the trust between the patient and the doctor. This becomes even a bigger violation of ethics when the doctor recruits their patients as distributors into their downline. It is all out of the financial interest of the doctor and not the interest of the patient.
How do doctors that sell USANA products to their patients keep their medical license?
Unless the doctor's patients file a complaint within their state, the practice of peddling will continue. Personally, if I go to a doctor for something and their recommended treatment is to purchase a specific brand of vitamins that the doctor is a distributor for, I would never go back to that doctor again. Would you? Most people would not go through the enormous hassle of filing a complaint. So the doctors peddling their own product never get in trouble. Ethical doctors do not place their own personal financial gain ahead of their patient's health.
Is there a way doctors can prescribe USANA products in an ethical manner?
Doctor's who want to recommend USANA product can do so ethically. This ethical option is for the doctor not to become a distributor, and to simply tell their patient to go to USANA's website and order the recommended product directly from USANA. By doing this, it removes the "conflict of interest" out of the equation. By doing this, it removes the "undue pressure" that would be placed on the patient. There are ethical ways for doctors to recommend USANA product, but the doctor cannot be financially connected, otherwise their would be a conflict of interest and violate the code of ethics.
I am from the medical world, I do not agree. Most doctors I trained with, no little of health. I have five degrees, written three books and have tested out Usana and several more so called health giving products. Yet Usana came out on top. As for the pyramid scheme, well, I don't know a business that isn't unless you work alone.
ReplyDeleteFredrick,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you trained amongst doctors who know little about health. I would like to know What school trained so poorly so I don't ever receive medical care from any doctor who attended that school?
Also, what don't you agree with? This article was about doctors peddling USANA vitamins. Do you not agree with "Medical Code of Ethics"?
How did you determine that USANA came out on top versus other health products that you personally have tested?
My doctor recently recommended that I take a daily multivitamin. I was wary at first and asked if he had any financial relationship with the manufacturer he was recommending. He said no and that the vitamins are available in retail stores. I asked him what he thought about doctors who have sign up as distributors in MLM companies and sell the vitamins to the patients. He told me that is called peddling and violates their Code of Ethics.
He recommended I take Rainbow Light® Just Once® multivitamin. It's $21 for a 60 day supply, which I believe is still too much to pay for vitamins. But that still doesn't rack up to the exorbitant price of USANA's "Essentials" that distributors pay $42.50 for only a 28 day supply.
USANA distributors pay over 4 times more for their multivitamin than I would pay for the Just Once® multivitamin. The ONLY reasons USANA's vitamins are so overly priced is to 1) fund their elaborate pyramid scheme and 2) fund their stock buyback program in which the executives exercise their stock options and sell back to the company. It's all nothing more than a money transfer system which relies on defrauding people from their hard earned money.
It seems that even after you received five degrees you still don't understand how businesses work. Saying you don't know of a business that isn't a pyramid scheme (unless they work alone) shows your lack of understanding of what a pyramid scheme is in the first place. Businesses have a hierarchy of employees that all have different tasks to focus on so that the business can function. Businesses don't have an endless number of levels in which each level must pay a fee for the right to receive commissions, and where the money each level pays actually funds the commission for the levels higher up. That's a pyramid scheme, whether there is a product involved or not.
Unfortunately, it is sad that you are posting articles when not fully informed. "Pyramid Schemes" are illegal. Pyramid Schemes do not offer "tangible products". USANA is a publicly traded company on NASDAQ. ALL Corporate, government, etc. are a "pyramid" structure...not scheme however. In Corporate America, the top of the pyramid is the president, the bottom are the "lowest employees". Every business represents a "pyramid" however. So it appears to me that you do not have a clear understanding of what a "Pyramid Scheme" is. Just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, it is my understanding that USANA Supplements are not only listed in the Physician's Desk Reference book for Pharmaceutical drugs but are the ONLY supplement in there, since 1996. I honestly believe that you may want to do some more research.
With best regards to your health.
The last anonymous poster has been misinformed on several accounts.
ReplyDeleteMany Pyramid Schemes today offer tangible products. Just because a product exists does not excuse the method involved to recruit an endless number of victims into a scheme where it is mathematically proven that no more than 10% of participants can make a profit. As far as calling the structure of corporate companies and government a "Pyramid" reveals your lack of understanding on what it takes to actually run a business or organization. Government officials and corporate employees each have their own duties to fulfill in order to be successful. Each and every one of a corporate employee is paid at least minimum wage, which is more than 99.9% of all USANA participants have ever made.
Furthermore, USANA is NOT the only company with supplements listed INCORRECTLY in the Physicians Desk Reference for Drugs. Instead of properly placing their food supplements in the PDR for Supplements & Herbs, USANA simply told Thomson Healthcare to list their supplements in the book for drugs. There was no special requirement to be listed there. I know this because I talked to Thompson Healthcare several years ago when I pointed out USANA was claiming the PDR endorsed USANA products, which USANA later had to remove from their marketing material.
So in you truly want to be informed regarding the PDR listings, I suggest you contact the authors directly as I once had and get the facts instead of hearing it from your upline who are only trying to recruit new members into the USANA pyramid scheme.