The Physician Payments Sunshine provision of the new health care reform law is that pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers reveal payments made to physicians and some hospitals. While compliance with this part of the law isn't required until 2012, the University of Miami has a head start:
The University of Miami medical school has become one of the first in the country to offer an online, searchable database revealing its doctors' relationships with outside businesses.
``This is a growing trend,'' says Alan Coukell, director of the nonprofit Pew Prescription Project. ``I know of four other schools that are doing this. With the passage of the Sunshine Act, there's going to be a lot, lot more.''
A provision of the new healthcare reform law, the Physician Payments Sunshine section, requires all manufacturers of prescription drugs, medical devices, and supplies must reveal any payment of more than $10 to physicians and teaching hospitals.
Such requirements were pushed by lawmakers after Pew and others exposed relationships between doctors' prescribing patterns and their oft-hidden relationships with the drug makers.
The sunshine provision starts in 2012, with the federal government required to have a searchable database by Sept. 30, 2013.
For the rest of the story, click here: University of Miami Database to Reveal Payments to Doctors; Miami Herald - April 1, 2010
Related story in the New York Times about drug maker Pfizer's efforts to comply with the new health care reform law: Pfizer Gives Details on Payments to Doctors; The New York Times - April 1, 2010
