The Sunshine Act was passed as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (health care reform) in 2010, but CMS decided to delay data collection in connection with the act until 2013. The Act was designed to give transparency to the money and dealings between physicians, pharmaceutical companies, medical device and other medical supply manufacturers, as well as ownership or investment interests in group purchasing organizations. Physicians and manufacturers are to report (or disclose) any and all such incentives and payments they receive to CMS. Payments need to be reported by date and amount as well as list the nature of the payment or incentive (i.e. gifts, meals, speaking honoraria, etc).
The thought was that if these little promos, pluses, gifts, and payments were known, it would cut down on things like drugs being dispensed because doctors got good gifts and perks, rather than prescribing what would be best for their patients or possibly lying about results or usage for drug reporting purposes. That’s not giving doctors very much credit in my book.
