For many years, there have been raucous debates about the implications of medical device, pharmaceutical and other medical products companies providing payments or gifts to physicians and hospitals. While there have been sporadic attempts at both the state and federal level to address such payments and gifts through reporting and disclosure laws, a national approach was not established until the Physician Payment Sunshine Act was promulgated in 2010, which sets forth comprehensive disclosure and reporting rules applicable to many participants in the health care and bioscience sectors.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued final regulations to implement the Sunshine Act’s reporting and transparency requirements. The law requires certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals or medical supplies to report to CMS certain payments or transfers of value (collectively referred to as "payments") to physicians and teaching hospitals everything from consulting arrangements to bagels. (The law also requires certain manufacturers and group purchasing organizations to report ownership and investment interests which are not discussed herein.)
