The list keeps growing.
Since my last update in July, three more banks in the country have failed. One in Florida, one in California and one in Nevada.
That brings to total to eight.
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s failed bank list, that’s the highest number of bank failures in five years.
But it’s still below 2002, when there were 12 bank failures.
Stay tuned …
You know them when you see them: Smartly dressed, perfectly coiffed young people who trot into doctors’ offices across the nation every day and get heralded like royalty into the inner sanctum of the physician’s quarters while you sit flipping through month-old Time magazines in the waiting room, aging by the minute.
But let’s pity those drug manufacturer reps for a moment. Their jobs are about to get a lot more difficult. Their swag is now banished, their dining severely curtailed. Nevermind golf, entertainment and vacation packages — those were discouraged a long time ago. As of Jan. 1, the pens and the bagels are out. So are notepads, mugs and most non-educational lunches or dinners.
All this is spelled out in the new “Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals” that goes into effect Jan. 1 for members of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — a trade group representing pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies.
Some doctors, understandably, take umbrage at the new rules. My favorite quote about this comes from Nickie Braxton, corporate compliance officer at Hartford Hospital/Hartford Health Care Corporation in Connecticut, to AIS Health:
“Physicians accustomed to bagels and Danishes, meals, golf resorts,…entertainment at industry-sponsored events, etc., will probably be less than enthusiastic about these changes, although most have surely been hearing about these compliance concerns for some time.”
Many physicians “are offended by the notion that they may be influenced by these minor offerings, and they’re indignant at the notion that they would prescribe a drug simply because someone brought them a bagel. But these [drug] companies are made [up] of very bright, creative, industrious individuals. Why would they spend millions of dollars on bagels and Danishes each year if this strategy had no impact?”