Our decidedly negative story on Senate Bill 790 about gifts and benefits in medication prescribing and dispensing was published on May 15, 2017.

Dr. Robert Weinmann

We asserted that the bill actually showed how little the author knew about drug pricing and how physicians prescribe. Sen. Mike McGuire's press release at the time said that the "interaction with the pharmaceutical industry is associated with ... unnecessary drug prescriptions ... borne by the patient and less availability of generic drugs." 

McGuire and crew didn't mention then that the markup or profitability of generics was often more than trade name medications or that drugs that were generic equivalents might not be "bioequivalent."

McGuire said at the time that data from 2014 showed that California physicians received the highest number of gifts and payments from pharmaceutical companies of any state. 

We recommended that the author take his bill back to the drawing board. We're glad to say he has now dismantled the drawing board. 

According to Sen. McGuire's office, SB 790 is being set aside so that new language on an unrelated topic such as natural resources can be inserted. The current text of SB 790 will be tossed and replaced with language on something else. 

That, dear reader, is how "gut and amend" bills are concocted. 

One of the first organizations to oppose SB 790 was the California Neurological Society (CNS). Kudos to CNS for foresight, action and success.

Dr. Robert Weinmann writes the Politics of Healthcare blog, from which this entry was taken with permission.