The more I hear about this year's ASCO conference, the more interesting it sounds ("interesting" as in the old curse, "may you live in interesting times"). Just came across this: Free latte for oncologists? Not without disclosure. Seems that docs have to swipe their IDs before grabbing a coffee on the show floor, and if they're from Minnesota or Massachusetts, fuggedaboudit.
I remember hearing something similar at the Pharmaceutical Meeting Management Forum, where several pharma planners said that they carded docs at the food lines at their physician meetings, and had to refuse serving them if they were from a super-strict state. I'll echo this from the Reuters article: "This is getting to the point of absurdity ... Is this the way we are going to solve the issue of healthcare in this country?"--Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.
