Senate reintroduces Physician Payments Sunshine Act

01/22/2009

Sens. Grassley and Kohl have reintroduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (S. 301).  The bill would require all pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech companies and their subsidiaries to disclose all payments to physicians with a $100 aggregate into a public online database.

The bill was introduced initially in September 2007, and its principles endorsed by MedPAC recommendations and the Congressional Budget Office last year.

“Shedding light on drug company payments to physicians would be good for the system,” Grassley said in a statement.  “Transparency fosters accountability, and the public has a right to know about financial relationships."

"Since we first introduced the bill, there has been a groundswell of support from every corner," Kohl said in a statement. " Patients want to know that they can fully trust the relationship they have with their doctor."

"The new version of the Physican Payments Sunshine Act is a real improvement over last year's bill," said Sharon Treat, Director of the National Leglislative Association on Drug Prices. "In particular, the language preempting similar state laws has been narrowed so that state disclosure and gift ban requirements that are more extensive than the proposed law may still be enforced....most states do not have such laws and this Act will fill in the gaps and also make this important information widely available."

Go here to read the Prescription Project's statement, and here to check out a fact sheet on the bill.