I have a question please. I know that CVS and other retail outlets have minute clinics inside their store. And Kaiser is a conglomerate that owns medical clinics and pharmacies. But can a pharmacist own his own medical clinic?
Can Pharmacists own medical clinics?
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Anyone can own a medical clinic. It is just small business and there are not any restrictions on who can own their own business. Now you would have to pay a medical director to oversee everything that goes on there. You could hire a medical director and see the patients yourself as a pharmacist, so long as the medical director signs off on your clinical decisions and signs off on the chart. Keep in mind that for medicare and medicaid billing the medical director is required to be in the building or on the premises when the patient is being seen.
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I have heard this too. It has to do with conflict of interest. If a doctor owns a pharmacy, he has a monetary incentive to prescribe more drugs. Most doctors, it seems, would like to open a pharmacy attached to / nearby their practices, so it seems likely that the patients would go to that pharmacy. Maybe they even give an incentive for prescriptions written by the good doctor.
I wasn't able to find a whole lot of information. It appears some states have specific laws against, but they are the minority. Not sure what prevents it in others - perhaps the BOP licensing process or something?
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Really?😕 Any sources? I've actually never heard of that, though I can see where a conflict of interest could be a factor.
owlegrad
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I googled can doctor's own pharmacies. Results were mixed. I am in law class right now, but that has not come up yet.
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I have heard it from a number of different people including a pharmacist, but that's hardly the definition of good sources. My less-than-comprehensive searches turn up that it's not state regulated in NY, AZ, or OR. It doesn't appear CA requires it either. While I can find multiple references to the rule, I can't find any hard evidence for the US. I'm not ready to throw in the towel and say there aren't states with this law, but I will say the search engine crawlers can't find their site easily. 😉
I'm wondering if it boils down to an ethical issue (perhaps for a medical board) rather than a BOP issue. I guess the BOP wouldn't really care WHY the prescription is written (as long as it's not for abuse of controlled substances), the medical board is really where they should care how the doctor is practicing medicine.
Looks like in Australia, only pharmacists can own pharmacies, and there are limitations as to how many they can own: http://www.health.qld.gov.au/health...isons_reg/documents/pharm-owner-guideline.pdf
Re: conflict of interest: The Pew Charitable Foundation has started the Pew Prescription Project, which, among other things, discusses prescriber conflict of interest arising from pharmaceutical marketing / freebies. http://www.prescriptionproject.org/
