A bill introduced in the House of Representatives in Marchwould mandate the reporting of all gifts to physicians worth more than$25—including education—and violators could lose millions in tax deductions foradvertising expenses.
The Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2008—or H. R.5605—could require quarterly transparency reporting of product rebates,dividends, education, funded research, food, trips and travel, consulting fees,rebates, dividends and anything else over the value of $25, transferred tophysicians by drug, device and medical supply companies, or by third partiesacting on their behalf. Thatinformation—who got what from whom—would be made publicly available.
The bill would impose fines of $10,000 to $100,000 perviolation, and if a company failed to report a single gift over $25, it wouldlose its tax deductions on all advertising-related expenses for that year.
A similar bill, S. 2029, is moving through the Senate.
The House bill, authored by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), has apowerful co-sponsor in Ways and Means Health Subcommittee chairman Pete Stark(D-CA).
The Senate bill was introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley(R-IA), ranking member and former chair of the Senate Finance Committee, andHerb Kohl (D-WI), chair of the Special Committee on Aging. “Americans are beinggouged by pharmaceutical companies that spend more on marketing than they do onresearch and development,” said DeFazio in a statement. “They enjoy generoussubsidies from the government, but have no accountability when it comes to thebillions of dollars they spend promoting high-priced drugs.”
Stark added: “Patients deserve to know if doctors are on thetake. Gifts and payments change doctors’ behavior. If they didn’t, drug, deviceand medical supply companies wouldn’t bother. The Sunshine Act will help enableMedicare beneficiaries to determine if their doctors are acting in patients’best interests. It may even convince doctors to quit taking what can only bedescribed as industry kickbacks.”
From the May 01, 2008 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
