Action may be under way to cut down on the high costs of pharmaceutical rep operations.

How many times have you been sitting in a crowded physicians’ office, loaded with people patiently waiting and wondered how much your appointment is delayed by sales people?

We’re talking about those well-dressed men and women toting cases and portfolios to peddle products to the doctors. Everyone has a right to make an honest living, and the pharmaceutical reps are doing what they are trained to do. It’s the home office that’s at fault. There must be a better way to handle it than those incessant interruptions, which only add to patients’ frustration.

Some relief, however, may be on the horizon. Weary of the constant flood of visits, sometimes as many as 10 a day, more and more doctors are starting to give the salespeople the wave-off, or at least make them more accountable.

Doctors, hospitals and state officials everywhere are imposing new restrictions on pharmaceutical sales representatives. Their actions are prompted by concerns about the drug industry’s marketing practices, rising prescription drug costs and the growing number of salespeople rapping on their doors.

Consider this: The number of drug sales reps has grown from nearly 42,000 in 1996 to nearly 90,000 early this year. The pharmaceutical industry last year spent more than $16 billion trying to persuade doctors to prescribe their products. Nearly $11 billion went for free samples of drugs that are widely advertised to consumers. There is little question the main goal is to ward off generic competition and to maximize sales of drugs protected by patents.

Drug promotions can influence a doctor’s prescribing habits. So health-care managers are betting that less contact with sales people will prompt more physicians to prescribe cheaper drugs that are therapeutically equivalent to the brand-name medications.

Some health-care providers are beginning to charge drug reps up to $50 for a 10-minute appointment. Others make the reps pay $30, upfront, the minute they enter the office.

There is dissent, predictably. Dr. Leonard Morse, who chairs the American Medical Assn.’s council on ethical and judicial affairs, says some of the growing trend of restrictions is “discourteous and disrespectful.”

“If you think those people are coming to doctors’ offices only to make a buck and profit, then the attitude is completely wrong. They come because they’re bringing learned information that the doctor otherwise would not get.”

With today’s vast communications structure? Please! There are mailings, Internet connections, medical journals and many other ways to disseminate information. Drug companies are seeking to protect patented brand names as opposed to generics and keep prices abnormally high. That is deplorable, particularly to needy people who have to decide between high-priced pills and basic food, clothing and shelter requirements.

Physicians need to assess their drug rep programs and decide on better ways to deal with the visitors. Certainly, the people waiting in the offices who have to pay for the high-priced pills the reps are pushing will be deeply appreciative.