Senate Finance Committee, IOM add support for Physician Payments Sunshine Act

04/30/2009

In a significant step toward transparency around industry payments to physicians, the Senate Finance Committee included the Physician Payments Sunshine Act in its Apr. 29 memo on policy options for health care delivery system reform. The Sunshine Act (S. 301) would require drug and medical device companies to make annual public reports of their gifts and payments to physicians. 

And a report by the Institute of Medicine the same week recommends that Congress pass a law establishing a public payments reporting database like the one the Sunshine Act would create.  The highly-regarded, non-partisan group also recommended that continuing medical education for doctors be completely decoupled from pharmaceutical industry funding, and an alternative funding mechanism put in place within two years.

On the heels of a recent series of Senate investigations into undisclosed consulting payments to doctors, and strong recommendations to end or limit industry support of CME from the Macy Foundation and the Association of American Medical Colleges, the IOM’s bold report and the inclusion of the Sunshine Act in the Finance Committee’s delivery system memo signals that these issues will are on policymakers’ radar screens as health reform takes shape.

Here is the memo, and the full IOM report.