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The Power Of Paperwork: How Philip Morris Neutralized The Medical Code
For Secondhand Smoke Daniel M. Cook,
Elisa K. Tong, Stanton A. Glantz and Lisa
A. Bero
A new medical diagnostic code for secondhand smoke
exposure became available in 1994, but as of 2004 it remained
an invalid entry on a common medical form. Soon after the code
appeared, Philip Morris hired a Washington consultant to
influence the governmental process for creating and using
medical codes. Tobacco industry documents reveal that Philip
Morris budgeted more than $2 million for this "ICD-9 Project."
Tactics to prevent adoption of the new code included
third-party lobbying, Paperwork Reduction Act challenges, and
backing an alternative coding arrangement. Philip Morris’s
reaction reveals the importance of policy decisions related to
data collection and paperwork.
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