Drug makers to report payments to doctors

April 30, 2010

Disclosure of financial ties between doctors and drug companies will be universally mandated in the physician payment provisions passed as part of President Barack Obama’s health care reform measure.

The Physician Payment Sunshine Act will require manufacturers and group purchasing organizations to report on a wide range of payments to physicians and physician-owned entities. Physicians must begin recording these payments on Jan. 1, 2012 and must begin reporting them on March 31, 2013.

Among the items that companies will be obligated to report are consulting fees, gifts and royalties, research payments and physician ownership interests in private companies.

For unintentional failure to report, penalties will include fines from $1,000 to $10,000 for each payment not reported, with a cap of $150,000 per year. For intentional failure to report, the fines are $10,000 to $100,000, with an annual cap of $1 million.

The first public report will be released in 2013.

[Print] [Email] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Furl] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon]


Comments

Got something to say?





Bottom