Interesting question. My experience with a very well renown doctor is that, yes, maybe, probably, perhaps. This is pure speculation as I have not even a shred of evidence, just the fact that he told me that "they (his practice) don't use regular pharmacies, just empower", and I wonder why.
Now, we could be cynical and think they are getting a kickback, or we could be trustful and empathetic and think they are doing it because in most cases he treats, insurance wouldn't cover the medications and regular pharmacies' prices are much more expensive than empower, so he's doing his patients a favor, additionally they also have more options with empower (such as Enclomiphene Citrate and Oxytocin) which are not available at Walgreen's or CVS.
Or we could be pragmatic and think there's a little bit of both. If I were a sales rep from a compounding pharmacy, my sales pitch would be:
- send us your patients
- you have more options
- we can compound anything (for example, Cypionate/Propionate mix, clomid 25 and 12.5 mg, Enclomiphene, T.Creams different strengths) so you can prescribe the right compound/dosage to your patients.
- our prices are better, and insurance rarely covers these products in males anyways
- we ship directly to the customer, more convenience than going to the pharmacy
- we provide better experience
- we'll also give you a 10% incentive fee ;-)
Usually regular people and neither saints nor devils and money frequently talks.
On the other hand, there's a different urologist I'm seeing that does the same thing and uses a different compounding pharmacy, but he's had no problem using empower when I asked him (for Enclomiphene Citrate), using Optum (for hCG, due to lower price) or even CVS for T.Cypionate. So every time I asked, he's sent the prescription to the pharmacy of my choice without hesitation, he just defaults to the compounding pharmacy of his choice.
I'd rather think not. The mind is a powerful thing. ;-)
