Is the latest medical world cahoots insurance companies and academia

The Last Psychiatrist (TLP). suggests that an unholy alliance between medical insurance companies and medical academia is well underway.See here.

He discusses an article from medical academia that apparently concludes that the much hated by physicians "prior authorization" for medication is really a good thing. Good for whom? TLP suggests that the drug promoted is as likely as not neither the cheapest nor the best but rather the one for which a deal has been struck between the drug manufacturer and the insurers and or the medication management company. They don't need any stinking comparative effectiveness research.

The poster child for the new insurance company-medical academia alliance is found at Harvard where is found the "only medical school department cosponsored by a health plan". The plan is the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and the department's name is The department of Ambulatory and Preventive Care.

Here is one paragraph from TLP:

"If you want to see what the next ten years in medicine look like, stop looking at Astra Zeneca. The next unholy alliance is between academic medicine and insurers/providers. The placebo controlled trials on the treatment of bipolar will no longer be controlled by Abott (Depakote off patent 2008), but by United Healthcare."

Next we will have to not allow medical students to have pens and mugs with insurance company logos.