‘Dollars for Docs’

For a government stressing transparency, the Obama administration has caused a discouraging number of delays in implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, the 2010 law that mandated drug companies to publicly disclose their financial ties to physicians.

Originally, the companies were to start collecting data Jan. 1, 2012, and the results were to be made public by the end of September 2013. Now, according to a recent announcement by the government, after sorting through drug industry objections to the proposed data collection plan, the government “will not require data collection … before January 1, 2013” (read: well after 2013). 

There is therefore little likelihood that the public will see any of this important, legally mandated infor-mation about physicians until well into 2014, if then.

Why does this matter? Let us assume, to be fair, that most physicians do not have these worrisome financial ties to drug companies, which — common sense and empirical data would dictate — can alter their decisions about which drugs to prescribe. Many patients, however, would like to know whether their doctors are among those whose financial ties may influence what drugs they prescribe.

Despite the absence of timely enforcement of this law for all drug companies, superb investigative reporters working for the independent, nonprofit news organization ProPublica have created a publicly available website with information from 12 drug companies.

Here is what ProPublica staffers Dan Nguyen, Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber have said about this:

Drug companies have long kept secret details of the payments they make to doctors and other health professionals for promoting their drugs. But 12 companies have begun [“voluntarily”] publicizing the information, some because of legal settlements. ProPublica pulled their disclosures into a database so patients can search for their doctor. Accepting payments isn’t necessarily wrong, but it can raise ethical issues.

Although the data come from companies selling about 40 percent of the drugs prescribed in this country, there are currently tens of thousands of physicians listed on the website. The data, from payments made in 2009, 2010 and the beginning of 2011, include 100 physicians whose net take-away from drug companies during this interval — just from speaking fees and consulting — was $50,000 or more, the highest being well over $100,000. 

If all drug companies were required to report this data, the number of such doctors enjoying the largesse of the drug industry, too often at patients’ expense, would likely be at least 250. This is not to say that smaller amounts of such financial conflicts of interest are not effective!

See the data for yourself: Visit http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars.