• Obama Administration Requiring Full Public Disclosure Of All Payments To Doctors From Drug Companies
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[quote]October 1, 2011, came and went without any debate and almost no discussion regarding a missed deadline of a low profile but consumer friendly provision in the Affordable Heath Care Act (AHCA)—a provision requiring full disclosure by drug and medical device companies of all gifts, money, speaking fees or any other type of payment to a doctor or his staff by the companies. This provision is commonly known as the [I]Physician Payments Sunshine Act[/I]. This provision had significant support by consumer groups and was authored by Senators Charles Grassley and Herb Kohl. The reason behind the support: Influence peddling and the threat to patient care by improper doctor/drug company relationships based on money and other arrangements rather than what is in the best interest of the patient. The federal government was to have disclosure rules drafted as of October 1, 2011, so that all such financial data could be collected and reported on a website accessible by the public as of September 2013. [URL="http://www.propublica.org/article/government-misses-deadline-disclosure-of-industry-payments-to-doctors/single"]ProPublica[/URL] (“an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest”) has maintained a [URL="http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/payments"]database[/URL] of 12 companies since October 2010 and reported the missed deadline last October without any attention being paid by the mainstream media or the Obama administration until now. It should be noted that Sens. Charles Grassley and Herb Kohl, did write a [URL="http://www.grassley.senate.gov/about/upload/Grassley-Kohl-CMS.pdf"]letter[/URL] to Medicare and Medicaid expressing their concern and disappointment at the delay. The [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/health/policy/us-to-tell-drug-makers-to-disclose-payments-to-doctors.html?_r=1&nl=afternoonupdate&emc=aua2"]New York Times[/URL] is reporting that the Obama administration is now “poised” to require these disclosures as set forth in the AHCA. The Obama administration estimates that more than 1,100 drug, device and medical supply companies will have to file reports, generating “large amounts of new data.” Federal officials said they would inspect and audit drug company records to make sure the reports were accurate and complete. Companies will be subject to a penalty up to $10,000 for each payment they fail to report. A company that knowingly fails to report payments will be subject to a penalty up to $100,000 for each violation, up to a total of $1 million a year. According to the New York Times: Large numbers of doctors receive payments from drug and device companies every year — sometimes into the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars — in exchange for providing advice and giving lectures. Analyses by The New York Times and others have found that about a quarter of doctors take cash payments from drug or device makers and that nearly two-thirds accept routine gifts of food, including lunch for staff members and dinner for themselves. This debate on gifts and payments to doctors and other medical providers has been the subject of many studies, articles and books since the early 1990s. The Editor-in-Chief of the[I] New England Journal of Medicine[/I] from 1991-1999, Dr. Jerome Kassirer, one of the most outspoken critics of the doctor-pharmaceutical ‘gifting’ relationship and author of several books and articles on the subject, [URL="http://www.guernicamag.com/features/100/bagging_doctors/"]enumerated[/URL] the most common ways a doctor becomes entangled with the drug company: • [I]Giving physicians gifts, free meals, and drug samples[/I] • [I]Paying physicians to lend their names to articles ghost written by drug companies[/I] • [I]Sponsoring continuing medical education (CME) courses for physicians that are often biased in favor of the sponsoring company’s medications[/I] • [I]Employing physicians to help write literature and brochures advocating their products[/I] • [I]Paying physicians to make presentations at drug-company sponsored conferences, which place a favorable slant on the sponsoring manufacturer’s medications[/I]. Numerous [URL="http://www.guernicamag.com/features/100/bagging_doctors/"]studies[/URL] (as analyzed by the[I] New York Times[/I] and others) conducted over the past two decades provide support for full disclosure to the public: “Considerable evidence from the social sciences suggests that gifts of negligible value can influence the behavior of the recipient in ways the recipient does not always realize.” And that when a person accepts a gift, no matter how small, “the obligation to directly reciprocate, whether or not the recipient is conscious of it, tends to influence behavior.” Consumers are demanding to know just what they are paying for and what their doctor is being paid to prescribe. The costs of these ‘gifts’ to doctors is being passed on to the consumer. During the past [B][URL="http://www.njpirg.org/in-the-news/health-care/health-care/should-doctors-accept-gifts-from-drug-companies"]decade[/URL][/B], the pharmaceutical industry employed twice as many sales representatives as they had the decade before with an annual gifting budget of almost $5 billion. (That’s with a “b”)! And it isn’t just consumers any longer. Many physicians are now joining the rank and file of those who oppose all gifting by Big Pharma. Websites such as [URL="http://nofreelunch.org/index.htm"]nofreelunch.org[/URL], operated by physicians for health care providers, have been discouraging the acceptance of any and all ‘gifts’ in an effort to improve patient care and to lower patient costs. Now we will be able to go online and check our own personal physicians to determine if our doctors are looking out for us or looking out for themselves. It’s about time. How did this deadline come and go without our noticing? This author appreciates many of the provisions of the AHCA such those dealing with pre-existing conditions, children 26 and under being allowed to stay on their parents insurance and now, this! The AHCA is referred to as Obamacare by most of the GOP and those opposed to the Act. This author refers to it as ObamaCares4Me. Not Medicare for All, but not bad either.[/quote] [url]http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/01/17/obama-administration-requiring-full-public-disclosure-of-all-payments-to-doctors-from-drug-companies/[/url]
Good idea
Obamacare kicks ass
This isn't how drug companies get doctors to use their drugs, though. They just give them free samples of their medicine.
[QUOTE=thisispain;34278549]Obamacare kicks ass[/QUOTE] but obama hasn't done anything remember But seriously this is so nice.
[QUOTE=MrBob1337;34278599]This isn't how drug companies get doctors to use their drugs, though. They just give them free samples of their medicine.[/QUOTE] And [I]SOMEHOW[/I] there's a fat wad of 100$ bills in the box they got it in.
[QUOTE=MrBob1337;34278599]This isn't how drug companies get doctors to use their drugs, though. They just give them free samples of their medicine.[/QUOTE] Uh, in the US many doctors get commissions for prescribing drugs. So no, free samples are not nearly all they get.
Transparency is the best policy.
[QUOTE=MrBob1337;34278599]This isn't how drug companies get doctors to use their drugs, though. They just give them free samples of their medicine.[/QUOTE] It's called kickbacks, boyo!
[QUOTE=da bloop;34279848]Transparency is the best policy.[/QUOTE] Obama is one of the most transparent presidents as of yet, and that's hurt him politically. Nevertheless I agree.
[QUOTE=ewitwins;34279870]It's called kickbacks, boyo![/QUOTE] Oh yeah I'm sure I'm forgetting all the thousands of dollars in commissions my surgeon mother is getting.
[QUOTE=MrBob1337;34283393]Oh yeah I'm sure I'm forgetting all the thousands of dollars in commissions my surgeon mother is getting.[/QUOTE] All of the school children being diagnosed with ADHD/whatever and prescribed addictive stimulants for the sake of the $$$. Have severe acne or another debilitating issue? Get ready to try the 4 least likely to work prescriptions before you get the good one if you haven't requested it right away.
Good, this may stop people from being on 9001 pills they don't need.
A good move. Money and medicine don't mix, especially when you put a price on a person's health.
[QUOTE=mac338;34279887]Obama is one of the most transparent presidents as of yet, and that's hurt him politically. Nevertheless I agree.[/QUOTE] Isn't he one of the least transparent?
[QUOTE=Camundongo;34284127]A good move. Money and medicine don't mix, especially when you put a price on a person's health.[/QUOTE] A good example of this being cancer patients. My grandmother has to take a $3,000 medication ($3k a bottle, per month) every day for the rest of her life just to treat Leukemia.
[QUOTE=TAU!;34284219]A good example of this being cancer patients. My grandmother has to take a $3,000 medication ($3k a bottle, per month) every day for the rest of her life just to treat Leukemia.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry to hear that. I hope laws like this help you and your family out, because they should do.
Awesome. Doctors aren't fucking salesman, they shouldn't make commission from drug companies for recommending their products. They should tell patients to take what they actually need, not some bullshit they're getting paid to shill for.
This is fucking awesome. About damn time!
Now we need absolute transparancy in the Patent office.
[QUOTE=valkery;34284626]Now we need absolute transparancy in the Patent office.[/QUOTE] I'm fairly certain the Patent office is already incredibly transparent
what a dirty socialist move
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