Last October, dozens of professional societies and other organizations, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Cardiology and the American Medical Association, sent a letter to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, expressing concern over medical journals and textbooks having to be reported under the Sunshine Act. In November, 23 members of Congress submitted their own letter with the same request.
In the letter, these organizations expressed that peer reviewed medical journals, medical textbooks and reprints of clinical journal articles should be exempt from reporting biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies as payments made to physicians.
In mid-January, CMS responded with a new clarification on the Sunshine Act, stating that textbooks and reprints of medical journal articles are not exempt from reporting. CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner says while textbooks and journal article reprints “may have downstream benefits for a patient, we believe they are not directly beneficial to patients nor are they intended for patient use…as required by the statutory exclusion.”
Partners for Healthy Dialogues believes educational materials, such as journal article reprints and medical textbooks, are a way that physicians stay current on cutting-edge medical science, to the direct benefit of patients, who expect their physicians to prescribe best treatments for their medical needs.
