Medtronic’s payment disclosure plan
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Medtronic will begin annually disclosing payments made to U.S. physicians in March 2011, the firm announces Feb. 24. Medtronic joins Edwards Lifesciences and a handful of drug firms in opting to publicly report physician payments ahead of a possible mandate from Congress, though both device firms set a less stringent reporting bar. Like Edwards, Medtronic will report payments made to physicians who receive $5,000 or more in consulting fees, royalties and honoraria from the firm (1"The Gray Sheet" Jan. 5, 2009, p. 23). Medtronic will start capturing payment data on Jan. 1, 2010, with annual third-party auditing. The latest version of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, introduced Jan. 22, would require disclosure of all payments to a physician exceeding $100 in a year (2"The Gray Sheet" Jan. 26, 2009, p. 8)
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Regulatory News In Brief
Medtronic physician payment disclosures: The company began posting information on payments to physicians on its website June 1, disclosing all payments exceeding an aggregate of $5,000 annually. The disclosures are in advance of deadlines set in the recently passed health care reform law, and ahead of Medtronic's original timetable calling for quarterly postings beginning in March 2011 (1"The Gray Sheet" March 2, 2009). "Voluntary disclosure will help the company prepare for the broader disclosure of physician payments," slated to begin in 2012, Medtronic said June 1. The firm's first quarterly posting to its 2physician registry covers payments made to about 225 physicians and entities. Medtronic is also adopting new policies and procedures for physician collaboration, including a needs-assessment process to document the precise business need for the physician services; limits on the involvement of and payments to royalty-earning physicians in clinical studies; and a services agreement to document, in advance, the services to be provided by physicians and the fair-market value payment to be made for the services, the firm announced
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Sens. Herb Kohl and Chuck Grassley included lower trigger amounts and higher non-compliance penalties in the latest version of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which would require firms to disclose financial relationships with physicians
Edwards To Post Physician Payments Online In Advance Of Possible Mandate
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