December 03, 2003

Ethics, schmethics

In another example of the peculiar brand of ethics the Bush Administration admires, the guy who was in the middle of negotiating the Medicare bill with Congress is about to take a job with a company which may directly benefit from one of the many deals cut in those negotiations. He discussed his position with the HHS ethics office and received a waiver, but

Experts on the federal ethics law said they could not judge the propriety of Mr. Scully's actions without knowing the terms of the waiver, which have not been made public.

[snip]

Mr. Scully said that after consulting with the ethics officer he saw no reason to disqualify himself from work on the legislation or on regulations that affected clients of the five firms. (My emphasis).

Well, we'll never know, now will we? One of the firms he's identified just happens to be Ropes & Gray. That company (surprise!) represents the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main lobby for the brand-name drug industry. Well, gosh. PhRMA fought hard and successfully to keep the government from having the right to negotiate drug prices in the Medicare bill. I'm not suggesting a job offer would be a reward for keeping that provision out of the bill, but it sure as hell could look that way.

I'm well aware of the revolving door between government and lobbyists. I don't see a way around it, and in some respects I suppose it has value to each entity. But this case is one where it doesn't pass a smell test. Maybe we need to re-introduce civics and ethics classes into schools at the secondary level. Had they taken one, it might have taught the CEOs of Tyco, Enron, WorldCom and all the others a little more about honesty.

Posted by Linkmeister at December 3, 2003 11:27 AM
Comments

Because I happened to be attending a meeting with numerous Medicare contractors like the one I work for (as well as our trade association), I heard about Scully's resignation a bit before it went public. Although he just as much of a self-aggrandizing, unethical corporate whore as the rest of the slime occupying the seats of power in the current malAdministration, he did do some things that advanced the cause of quality improvement for providers of services through Medicare. Directly or indirectly, that's good for Medicare beneficiaries, good for the health care system, good for the people of our country.

In the face of the reprehensible ruination of Medicare perpetrated against the American people by the Bushies and Congress, and in the face of the immense financial windfall for their corporate friends (and Tom Scully's future employer, whoever that turns out to be), that's only a very small positive buried within Scully's tenure at CMS. Still, being able to identify a small plus from someone in the Bush malAdministration is something of a novelty.

Posted by: N in Seattle at December 7, 2003 08:26 AM