Feds to Publicize Drug and Device Company Payments to Doctors Next Year
February 7, 2013by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber | ProPublica, Feb. 1, 2013 – After years of anticipation, all of the nation’s drug and medical device makers must soon begin publicly reporting payments they make to U.S. physicians, according to final regulations announced this afternoon by the federal government. The release of payments data in September 2014 would mark a milestone in the push to bring transparency to medicine. Once posted, patients will be able to see if their physicians receive money from any of the companies whose products they prescribe. Studies have shown that such payments, however small, bias physicians towards companies and their products. Read more