There is a fire burning in the nonprofit community. The fire is the issue of valuing donated pharmaceuticals. Primarily issue is about mebendazole. Albendazole and antibiotics are involved, but to a much lesser degree. There are many alarm bells ringing.
The loudest fire alarm went off yesterday.
Forbes has been ringing the fire bell for five years. William Barrett has been ringing the bell loudly in the evangelical R&D community for a year.
Caroline Preston has been sounding the fire alarm for just over a year.
I’ve been ringing the alarm in this teeny, tiny little blog since last December.
Many other media sources are sounding the alarm as well. The number is growing.
The time left to put out the fire on our own is starting to run out.
As I mentioned earlier, the loudest alarm so far went off yesterday.
William Barrett reports in Charity Regulators (Finally) Eye Overvaluation of Donated Goods that there are a lot of rumors circulating that a number of state regulators are working on a coordinated enforcement action regarding overvalued meds.
The widespread rumors are that Elizabeth Korsmo, an assistant AG in New Mexico is a major player in the coordinated effort. In an interview with Mr. Barrett, Ms. Korsmo will only say:
“States are looking at gift-in-kind valuation issues,” she said. “This is on our radar. It’s a hot issue among regulators.”
If you’ve lived in a small community, you know that the volunteer fire department has an extremely loud siren that calls all the firemen. (When I grew up, it was only firemen.) You can hear the fire whistle all over the town. When it goes off, firefighters from all over drop what they are doing, jump in their cars, and race to the station because there’s a fire that needs to be put out.
That article by Mr. Barrett should be a fire siren heard across the country.
There is a serious fire that needs to be put out. Sounds like the AGs are getting in their fire truck. The town volunteer fire department had better get busy.
Enough of the fire analogy. You get my point.
The time that is available to fix the poor accounting for donated medicine is quickly running out. If the charity community does not get the valuations fixed really soon, other people will fix it for you. If the IRS and AGs get involved, the results will not be pretty.
Do you realize that mebendazole hasn’t been an issue for at least the last 18 months?
DJ – Thanks for your comment. Do you mean the valuations have dropped or the volume has dropped? For how many organizations are you familiar with their valuations and volumes? Please elaborate.