Conflicts of interest – health industry in the USA
This PBS article highlights the problems that many governments have in regulating the cross-cutting issues of conflicts of interests, which in this case runs through the overlapping conflict issues in health care in America. This article also addresses, in a less obvious manner, appointments which fall through the cracks, avoid declarations of conflicts, yet are obviously conflictual. Both of these issues are not unique to the US but it is a good primer in all the ways that conflicts and what comes out of these conflicts can weaken confidence in the work of government within particularly important industries. In this case, the focus was on an appointed aide to the Secretary of Health, Calley Means, who is a special government employee and as such he does not have to disclose his financial interests. “He has used that perch to attack the nation’s leading physician groups, federal agencies and government scientists, claiming they only protect their own interests in the nation’s $4.9 trillion-a-year industry.” He alludes to corruption but “Means, however, has his own financial stake in the sprawling health system. He’s the co-founder of an online platform, Truemed, that offers dietary supplements, herbal remedies and other wellness products.” He attacks the medical groups and industries, while touting the importance of herbal and wellness products as well as his own published literature. At the same time, we know nothing about his finances, even though his boss tout’s hyper transparency.
What can be done? In many developing and developed countries the rules and regulations that are tied to conflicts of interest can be tightened, and though this can be challenging it can occur if there is true political will. One of the easiest means is to first allow for transparency, public access to financial declarations of company interest be it ownership or shares in a company. And this should apply to all those who work in such sensitive industries where the stakes are so very high. If someone has a personal or financial interest in the outcome of a law or regulation, this information should also be publicly available. This is constantly a problem when addressing government representatives who own shares in companies, where they are working on legislation. In the US they attempted to pass a bill forcing legislators to divest or not own shares, but this law did not pass. What does need to be done is ongoing publicity of these issues and ensuring that both the public and the public officials are aware of the consequences and advocate for greater accountability and transparency.
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