Impact of Sunshine Law on physicians
In response to growing concerns that physicians’ financial relationships with pharmaceutical and medical device companies create inappropriate conflicts of interest in research and patient care, Section 6002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implements the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (the Sunshine Act).
The Sunshine Act requires manufacturers of drugs, biological products, medical supplies and medical devices to annually report payments made to physicians or teaching hospitals to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (the Secretary). The Secretary must make the reported data publicly available. The expectation is that increased transparency will deter inappropriate conflicts of interest and will increase confidence that physicians are disseminating unbiased information.
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