Doctors paid to prescribe generic pills

Wall Street Journal (subscription required), January 24, 2008

Health plans are drawing scrutiny for offering financial incentives to entice doctors to prescribe cheaper generic medicines. Health plans say the goal is to save patients, employers and insurers money, and many doctors argue that it's only right to reimburse them for spending time evaluating whether a cheaper generic alternative is better or just as good. But Medical societies are concerned that such rewards may put doctors in the ethically questionable position of taking a payment that is unknown to patients.