FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2015
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
Culinary Union joins UNITE HERE’s national program to end Big Pharma influence on Continuing Medical Education Activities
Las Vegas, NV - Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has joined the national program of its parent organization, UNITE HERE, in calling for an end to pharmaceutical influence on Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses. This effort comes at the first anniversary of the Open Payments database, a federal program that collects and makes public information about financial relationships between the health care industry, physicians, and teaching hospitals.
UNITE HERE, the national hospitality workers’ union, will be gathering petition signatures in over 30 cities across the United States, including Las Vegas, this summer and encouraging the Accrediting Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to end financial ties between Big Pharma and doctors participating in CME courses. Patients, doctors, and members of the public can sign the petition at NoMoreDrugMoney.org.
“Medical meetings are important to our hospitality industry in Las Vegas and nationally,” said Chad Neanover, prep cook at the Margaritaville on the Las Vegas Strip. “We negotiate with our employers to have affordable healthcare. Unfortunately, this is constantly under attack as healthcare costs continue to skyrocket and pharmaceutical companies are influencing the medical industry.”
All doctors are required to participate in CME activities to maintain a license in order to practice. Most doctors resist money and gifts from drug companies, however, some have taken thousands and tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from pharmaceutical companies.
The launch of Open Payments last summer revealed that doctors in the U.S. had taken $4 billion dollars in gifts, cash, or other compensation from pharmaceutical or medical device companies. The ACCME reported that in 2011, the pharmaceutical industry spent $736 million on CME courses, and in 2013, CME activities were a major beneficiary of these types of compensations.
The Culinary Union is concerned about ballooning costs for its members’ healthcare plans. Prescription drugs, devices, and biologicals are a major factor in rising healthcare costs and the Union is concerned doctors may be unduly influenced by contributions from Big Pharma to prescribe more expensive drugs when more affordable, generic alternatives are available.
CME activities are a vital source of revenue and jobs in the hospitality industry. UNITE HERE and the Culinary Union continue to communicate broadly with leaders and stakeholders of the medical industry about best practices for supporting good hospitality jobs.
The Culinary Union has called upon the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), an organization that encourages medical industry events to hold their conferences in Las Vegas, to protect convention business by informing prospective clients of venues in the middle of labor disputes like Station Casinos’ nine casino resorts. After a medical conference left the state, the Culinary Union called on the LVCVA to adopt a transparency policy to disclose labor disputes so groups will be protected and not be blindsided by labor unrest.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent over 55,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. UNITE HERE represents 270,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
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