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Health Industry Lobbyist Joins Media (but keeps day job)

Post on January 30, 2009 by 13 Comments »

This week, a News and Observer-owned publication, The Insider, announced a new partnership with a longtime health industry lobbyist and lobbying firm to provide news about health issues in the state. The Insider is a respected subscription newsletter that has covered state government happenings for years. It provides schedules of bill action, summary of news stories, and independent reporting.

The Insider’s new partner is longtime NC lobbyist Harry Kaplan, a NC director in the national lobbying and PR firm McGuireWoods Consulting. McGuireWoods is a firm that isn’t shy about trumpeting its conservative credentials – like when it boasts how it was able to push repeal of a state “death tax” despite opposition from misguided people who thought inheritance taxes only applying to estates worth millions affect only the wealthy.

In North Carolina, Kaplan’s McGuireWoods clients include the NC association of health insurance companies, two pharmaceutical industry stalwarts – Novartis and Purdue Pharma, State Farm Insurance, and MedSolutions, “the leader in radiology management.” To be fair, Kaplan’s got some nonprofit clients too, among them the American Heart Association and Community Health Center Association.

Kaplan, McGuireWoods, and The Insider will reportedly team up to offer a subscription newsletter to report on health care policy and legislation at the General Assembly. Kaplan is quoted as saying that no publication will report “faster or more fully” on health issues.

Kaplan’s a well-liked and respected lobbyist, and no doubt has the ability to produce this sort of publication – he actually tried it on his own a few years ago, although it never took off. However, this new partnership raises questions about whether a health industry lobbyist should be joining with one of the largest media companies in the state to report on health issues.

What gets reported on in this sort of newsletter may well end up in the more mainstream media. And, even with good will and the best of intentions all around, Kaplan’s business provides an appearance of a conflict of interest regarding how and what he chooses to cover.

Possibly related posts:

  1. New report: Fracking industry spending big bucks in Congress
  2. New Report: Why Medicaid matters to all North Carolinians (But not Thom Tillis)
  3. NCIOM: NC ignores respected business consultants in setting up health exchange
  4. The multiple causes of health disparities and the work of the Justice Center

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Comments (Closed):11

  1. James
    January 30, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    Creepy.

  2. Acai
    January 30, 2009 at 12:48 pm

    Kaplan’s a well-liked and respected lobbyist, and no doubt has the ability to produce this sort of publication – he actually tried it on his own a few years ago, although it never took off. However, this new partnership raises questions about whether a health industry lobbyist should be joining with one of the largest media companies in the state to report on health issues.

  3. Marianne Skolek
    January 30, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    What I know about Purdue Pharma. I know that in April 2002, I lost my beautiful 29 year old daughter Jill to prescribed OxyContin. I know I worked tirelessly from 2002 until today, to expose Purdue Pharma for criminally marketing OxyContin. I know that in July 2007, I was asked by U.S. Attorney Brownlee of Virginia to make an impact statement in Federal Court at the sentencing of Purdue Pharma’s three CEO’s Michael Friedman, Howard Udell and Paul Goldenheim for convincing physicians and patients that OxyContin was less likely to be addictive or abused. I know they pled guilty were sentenced to 400 hours of community service at a drug rehab facility, put on probation and fined a hefty fine (which was very affordable by a $10 billion privately held pharmaceutical company). I know Senators Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy asked me to testify against Purdue Pharma in front of the U.S. Senate – also in July 2007. I know that Purdue Pharma continues to market OxyContin criminally – most recently for “pregnancy pain” and for the “undertreatment of pain in infants and pediatric patients.” What they didn’t know was that I now work with the FDA monitoring all of Purdue Pharma’s activities. The convicted criminals were told by the FDA they were not allowed to market to the most vulnerable of patients – pregnant women and infants. Purdue Pharma needed to be firmly advised of this because they have no conscience. I look forward to further action in 2009 against Purdue Pharma and in particular J. David Haddox, the gate keeper of Purdue Pharma. In particular, I continue my work for Jill and for the scores of innocent people who have died or have become addicted to OxyContin because of an out of control pharmaceutical companyl.

    Marianne Skolek
    Activist for Victims of OxyContin and
    Purdue Pharma – a criminally convicted pharmaceutical company
    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html?
    http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2007/07/sometimes_only_justice_can_rel.html
    http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=2905&wit_id=6612
    908-285-1232
    mskolek@aol.com
    http://www.oxydeaths.com

  4. north state politics
    February 4, 2009 at 9:46 am

    I contacted Dresher and he indicated that while the Insider is owned by the News and Observer, there is not control by either the Insider or the N and O over the other.
    Still seems a bit too cozy to me.

  5. PAW
    February 4, 2009 at 10:20 am

    I am very concerned about having a highly-paid corporate lobbyist
    write for the insider. I certainly would not consider anything he
    writes to be objective; or for that matter, news. As he should, he represents his clients’ interests, not the public’s.

    This arrangement seems inappropriate.

  6. kevinburns55
    March 10, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    I fell heath care should be a right just as much as the fire department or our public schools. Your right to be healthy is imperative to you and your families survival. I could have used health care when I had a family drug intervention and I had to go to rehab for my drug and alcohol addiction. I had to foot the whole bill on my own. Let me tell you no health care is cheap and being health will allow you live a productive positive life.

  7. WEL
    March 18, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    MAXIDEX DEXAMETHASONE WARNING

    I had eye surgery and in the post-op pack was MAXIDEX(dexamethasone) drops by ALCON LABS.

    Two days later I was BLIND

    Use Google and enter EPOCRATES MAXIDEX REACTION to verify

    Or call 800-757-9195

  8. Acai Berry
    July 25, 2009 at 6:45 am

    Well, I certainly would not consider anything he
    writes to be objective; or for that matter, news.

  9. Acai Products
    August 14, 2009 at 7:33 am

    Thank You for the post.I think new partnership will definitely give some useful results.

  10. grow taller
    August 17, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    The convicted criminals were told by the FDA they were not allowed to market to the most vulnerable of patients – pregnant women and infants.

  11. Trabajar Desde Tu Casa
    October 15, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    I don’t trust the health industry or politics, and now joining them with the media is triple the problem. I see more propaganda coming