News from the USA; As part of the Obama Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) legislation there is now a raft of obligations on physicians and manufacturers when it comes to disclosing the nature of their relationships. From the end of March 2013 and no more than ninety days following the start of subsequent years, drug, device, biological and medical supply manufacturers will be obliged to report transfers of value made to physicians or teaching hospitals. In the legislative text (SEC1128G if you’re interested) there is now a long list of transparency reporting requirements relating to payments or other transfers of value. Presumably the expectation is that this will reduce ultimate cost of healthcare by making it more difficult for companies to “buy” business under the cover of whatever financial agreements exist with clinicians, thereby encouraging competition and innovation and helping the SME against the deep pocketed large corporate. It’s a sad world when there is enough doubt about physician impartiality that it requires this degree of legislation, but it’s not a case of “only in America” this time. Go for coffee with a clinician in Europe these days and he’s likely to want to pay for pretty much the same reason.
For a comprehensive list of the USA transparency requirements take a look here.
Source: medlatest staff, primaryimmune.org
published: September 27, 2011 in: medlatest Editorial, USA