Health Reform Mandates Transparency in Industry-Provider Relationship

National health care reform legislation adopted in March 2010 contained numerous provisions to promote transparency in the health care delivery system. Most significantly, Section 6002 of the legislation included provisions that comprised the Physician Payments Sunshine Act previously introduced as a separate bill (Sunshine Law).¹ The Sunshine Law mandates public disclosure of payments and gifts by pharmaceutical, device, medical supply, and biotechnology companies to physicians and teaching hospitals for a wide array of purposes, including consulting, speaking engagements, advisory board service, travel, food, and clinical research. Part of a national movement to use disclosure to advance quality and compliance in health care delivery, the Sunshine Law has significant implications for health care providers and the public as well as industry.

Move Toward Disclosure

The Sunshine Law follows in the wake of state laws that mandate disclosure of the financial relationship of industry and physicians; four states and the District of Columbia currently require pharmaceutical and device manufacturers to report payments and gifts to physicians.² Recently, congressional investigations have also focused on transparency in the financial relationships between industry and medicine. Investigations at several major academic medical centers found that prominent researchers had failed to disclose their industry ties to their own universities, leaving the institutions subject to regulatory penalties.³