Medical Organizations Pledge Support For Gift Disclosure Bill; Pharmacy Groups Lobby To Prevent Changes To Medicaid Reimbursement Formula

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry;  Pharmacy / Pharmacist;  Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 26 Oct 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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Summaries of recently published articles tied to the pharmaceutical trade appear below.

• Gift disclosure: Three medical organizations at a press conference on Monday pledged their support for a bill (S 2029) that would require drug companies to release physician payment and contribution data, CQ HealthBeat reports (Bloedorn, CQ HealthBeat, 10/23). Under the bill, companies with at least $100 million in annual revenue would be required each quarter to disclose gifts or payments exceeding $25 in value, and the information would then be posted on a Web site. Companies would be required to disclose any payment or benefit made "directly, indirectly, through an agent, subsidiary or other third party," which might include payments by universities and by companies that set up conferences for influential physicians with drug or medical device manufacturer funding. Funding of continuing medical education programs also would need to be disclosed. No-cost drug samples and financing for clinical trials would not have to be disclosed under the bill (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 9/7). The three groups -- the American Medical Students Association, the National Physicians Alliance and The Prescription Project -- also are supporting a companion bill to be introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). AMSA President Michael Ehlert noted that $7 billion of the $22 billion spent in 2006 by drug companies on advertising was used on direct marketing to physicians. He said, "Medicine is in danger of losing the public trust" (CQ HealthBeat, 10/23).
  
  
• Medicaid: An intensive lobbying effort by pharmacy groups is under way seeking a reversal of a CMS ruling that would change the Medicaid prescription drug reimbursement formula, Roll Call reports (Jackson, Roll Call, 10/24). The ruling, mandated by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, seeks to ensure that Medicaid can obtain prescription drug discounts similar to those obtained by private entities. The rule would reduce Medicaid reimbursements to pharmacies for generic prescription drugs (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 10/16). Independent family-run pharmacies and customers in "rural communities they serve stand to get hit particularly hard." The CMS ruling, which was scheduled to be implemented in July 2007, was delayed until Feb. 1, 2008. The delay gives pharmacists and their support groups a "precious few extra months to work the issue," according to Roll Call. Legislation that would change the new CMS policy is pending in both houses of Congress (Roll Call, 10/24).
  

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