In addition to everything else, the Baucus bill wants to make drug and other medical companies to report payments to doctors and hospitals when they pass certain levels. How much triggers a report, you ask? Any individual payment over $10 or total payments to a recipient of more than $100 a year. Under the bill unveiled by Sen. Max Baucus today, drug, device and medical-supply makers would be required to provide a slew of details to Health and Human Services going beyond the names and addresses of those receiving money. The reports would have to include whether the payment was for marketing, education or research purposes, the specific name of the drug, device or medical supplies and “any other category of information that the Secretary determines appropriate,” according to the bill. See p. 176 of the bill . Also, if a doctor requests that the money be transferred to another person or entity, that information should be disclosed as well. And should this provision in the Baucus bill

become law, it would trump all state disclosure laws, unless the state law requires reporting beyond the federal statute. We all know that Congress has been scrutinizing industry payments to docs; Sens. Chuck Grassley and Herb Kohl introduced a national Physician Sunshine Payment Act in January. Many drug companies , including Lilly, Pfizer, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, have been coming up with their own voluntary reporting guidelines, hoping to forestall tougher reporting requirements. PhRMA , the drug industry trade group, said it’s still reviewing the Baucus bill. In a statement sent to us by a spokeswoman, the group says, “It is important that whatever information disclosed is accurate and is provided with adequate context that does not inadvertently imply that these interactions are inappropriate.” Also, any reporting requirements shouldn’t “impose excessive burdens on physicians and those required to report” not “chill physician involvement in research,” PhRMA says. Photo by fdecomite via Flickr

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Putting a Price on Sunshine: It’s $10 in the Baucus Bill