Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doctors don't do that, and the acts that medical companies partake to go directly to the consumers are sometimes quite underhanded. I was listening to an NPR special about a year ago on how, for some high-end medications which now have generics on the market, patients can receive 'coupons' for medications that cover their copays. What does this mean? Well, for the generic the patient would have paid $7 and the insura…
Why don't doctors do that? Shouldn't doctors know what the available drugs are to treat a disease? And I know for a fact that sometimes pharmacists will give you a different size pill than the doctor requests, if it's substantially cheaper. They tell people to just break them in half, or take 2, or whatever.
Which is hardly the most effective channel. In fact, studies have shown an inverse correlation between how much time a physician spends being "educated" by drug reps, and patient outcomes. Of course, while the patients' quality of care goes down the cost of care goes up, because they're paying out the nose for expensive new drugs instead of equivalent (or, as is often the case, superior) generics.