Physician Payment Sunshine Act: Open Payments 101 for Physicians

Conclusion Policy and Medicine has created a convenient Open Payments: Quick Facts for Physicians one-pager that summarizes key Open Payments information for physician reference. If physicians are well-versed regarding the nature of Open Payments data, they will be in a position to educate patients and place physician-industry relationships in a positive light. Although the recent QPharma Survey revealed that 41% of PCP's don't know whether informing patients about the meaning of the Open Payments data will give patients a positive understanding of the publicly reported information, another 16% of PCPs think it could help "a lot." Specialists are more pessimistic about Open Payments patient education. Only 6% think it would help "a lot," while 25% think it won't help at all. Nevertheless, 44% of specialists believe that educating patients about the meaning of Open Payments data could "somewhat" help provide a positive understanding of the data. In discussing the perception of Open Payments data, ACP Internist noted that "[p]eople shouldn't view being on this website as a 'list of shame', [according to Neil Kirschner, PhD, the American College of Physicians' senior associate for health policy and regulatory affairs] . . . The fact that there is a relationship between industry and physicians is itself not a bad thing...It's appropriate for doctors to learn things, to consult, and to get grant money from industry. If it's out in the open it takes away the more nefarious ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs