John G. O’Brien, president of Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Health Care, has apologized for spending more than $50,000 a week on young models in revealing outfits to recruit potential bone marrow donors, according to a Worcester Telegram & Gazette report.
UMass Memorial and its subsidiary, Caitlin Raymond International Registry, have faced criticism from potential donors and law enforcement agencies for spending millions of dollars on models and allegedly misleading potential donors about the cost of lab testing required to join the registry. An internal task force from UMass Memorial, along with outside consultants, will investigate the registry’s marketing and billing practices. The health system is also cooperating with official probes by attorney general offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Donors were allegedly misled to believe the required DNA tests for marrow donation were free. One donor said registry staff told him the DNA test would cost his insurer a couple of hundred dollars at most, according to the report. He later checked his health insurance statements and discovered UMass Memorial billed his insurer $4,137 for the test, according to the report.
UMass Memorial was spending more than $50,000 a week, for a year and half, on models who were personally selected from photographs by UMass Memorial’s marketing director. Young women were required to dress in short skirts, high heels, lab coats and brightly colored wigs, according to the report.
Mr. O’Brien wrote a two-page memo to physicians and staff, apologizing for an “error in judgment,” according to the report. He said the use of professional models for marketing purposes is inappropriate for an academic healthcare organization, and the practice has been discontinued, according to the report.
Read the Worcester Telegram & Gazette report on UMass Memorial’s donor recruitment methods.
Read more about UMass Memorial:
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– New BCBS of Massachusetts Plan Increases Co-Pays for 15 “High-Cost” Hospitals
– UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester Names Jennifer Daley COO
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