CLARIFICATION: Reconciliation bill has no impact on Sunshine Act

04/06/2010

There has been some confusion around the Physician Payments Sunshine Act in health care reform. The version of the Sunshine Act that passed March 21, 2010 [fact sheet here] requires drug and device companies to report all payments over $10 made to physicians and teaching hospitals into a public website beginning in 2012 (collection) and 2013 (website).

An earlier version of the House health care bill, which included different Sunshine provisions and an expanded list of covered recipients, was, for several days, used as a placeholder bill to the reconciliation health care bill for procedural reasons (and was posted on Thomas, the federal legislative tracking site).   The actual reconciliation bill, substituted for the placeholder, was passed by Congress and signed by President Obama March 30, 2010.  It did not change or affect the Sunshine provisions [legislative language here] in the core bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed by the Senate in December, by the House March 21, and signed by the President March 30, 2010.  

 
For more information, please contact: Gabrielle Cosel at gcosel@pewtrusts.org