Drug And Device Companies Will Now Have To Report Payments

By Bill Peckham

Merrill Goozner has a post that highlights a small piece of the health insurance reform legislation that will mean:

Drug and device companies will soon have to report payments to physicians in a national database, thanks to a little noted section of the health care reform bill called the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.

Too bad it won't be able to publish retrospective data.

Reading the text of S. 301*, the Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2009 it applies to:

‘(1) APPLICABLE GROUP PURCHASING ORGANIZATION- The term ‘applicable group purchasing organization’ means a group purchasing organization (as defined by the Secretary) that purchases, arranges for, or negotiates the purchase of a covered drug, device, biological, or medical supply.

I'm not sure if that would include dialysis providers. It seems like it would, they negotiate the purchase of covered drugs, but it is the Secretary of DHHS's call. There will probably be a letter writing campaign any day now.

* it looks to me this went into the health insurance reform bill in it's entirety as Section 6002, the language as signed by the President is here but be warned it is a large file, viewing options at link.