Brand-name drug makers already pay hefty user fees to help speed their applications through the FDA. That money is expected to provide about a third of the agency's budget this year. 

In general, we oppose user fees that allow a regulated industry to fund the regulators. A government agency can become dependent on the companies it's supposed to objectively regulate, which can influence decisions. In a 2006 survey...many FDA employees said they felt pressured to hastily and perhaps improperly approve user-fee drugs. And at least one felt the agency viewed industry, not the American public, as its client.   - Jim Guest, Consumer Reports, November 2010

• Identify and describe the ethical issues of the FDA's funding practice.
• Do you see any conflict in allowing private for-profit and not-for-profit hospital accreditation programs to accredit hospitals on behalf of Medicare, noting that the hospitals pay the accrediting organization to conduct such surveys?