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Press Release
The Prescription Project Applauds Legislation Requiring Disclosure of Physician-Industry Relationships
Boston, Massachusetts - The following is the statement of Robert Restuccia, Executive Director for The Prescription Project, regarding the revised Physician Payments Sunshine Act filed today.
“We commend Senators Kohl and Grassley for their leadership in crafting a bill to create much needed transparency around the financial relationships between physicians and the drug and medical devices industries.
“Pharmaceuticals and medical devices clearly play a critical role in patient care. However, aggressive industry marketing of new drugs and devices to doctors through undisclosed gifts, consulting payments, speaking fees, classes, and meals can inappropriately influence medical decisions and create conflicts of interest.
“Congressional investigations and media reports have highlighted the potential for marketing to exert undue influence on prescribing. By requiring full disclosure of gifts and financial relationships and making that information easily accessible to the public, the Sunshine Act ensures that government and individual citizens alike can make informed decisions about prescription drug and medical device use.
“The Physician Payments Sunshine Act includes many provisions that are essential to a strong and comprehensive federal disclosure law, including:
- a $100 annual aggregate reporting threshold for gifts and payments
- a requirement that all pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies and their subsidiaries disclose gifts and payments
- a mandate that state-level data be available to state governments for analysis
“This bill would limit the ability of states to pursue similar initiatives, making it essential that any federal legislation is at least as comprehensive as any existing state measure.”
"The legislation requiring public disclosure of the financial relationships between healthcare vendors and physicians has been widely discussed in policy circles for years. Critics claimed payments for speaking, consulting, research or even the small trinkets and meals delivered during routine sales calls unduly influenced physician choices and inflated healthcare costs. To combat those effects, Congress required public reporting of those payments in a publicly accessible database. The legislation, labeled the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, was included in the 2010 healthcare reform law."
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Prescription project director Danny Carlat identifies issues with the Physician Payments Sunshine Act requiring further clarification and guidance. Addressing those would ensure that manufacturers can appropriately implement the final rule, and enable consumers to benefit from transparency reports published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
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The Pew Charitable Trusts is working to decrease the influence of pharmaceutical marketing on doctors’ practices. With a three-year grant from the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program, Pew is collaborating several partners to improve conflict-of-interest policies within the 158 medical schools and 400 major teaching hospitals in the United States.
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