Physician Payment Sunshine: Minnesota Officially Scales Back Physician Reporting

Back in January of this year, the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, through its Executive Director Cody Wiberg, announced that it would be amending its annual disclosure requirements regarding payments drug and device manufacturers make to physicians and other healthcare professionals or entities.

Taking into consideration the upcoming Sunshine Act regulations, which preempt any state law that requires a manufacturer to disclose the type of information covered by the Sunshine Act, the Board of Pharmacy determined that it will “not require wholesalers and manufacturers to report any data for calendar year 2012” because the “vast majority of data that is reported under Minnesota law is information covered by the Sunshine Act.”

Consequently, Polaris recently confirmed that on May 23^st, 2013 the Governor of Minnesota signed into law a bill amending pharmaceutical manufacturers’ reporting requirements for payments to Minnesota practitioners. Below is the new legislation

Reportable Activities: Payments pursuant to activities described in Section 151.461 clauses (4) and (5) of the Minnesota Statutes

(4) Reasonable honoraria and payment of the reasonable expenses of a practitioner who serves on the faculty at a professional or educational conference or meeting

(5) Compensation for the substantial professional or consulting services of a practitioner in connection with a genuine research project

Reportable Recipients: Minnesota practitioners not included in the definition of “physician” pursuant to Federal Sunshine

• Minnesota-licensed Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, Veterinarians and “Dental Therapists” are reportable
  

Dates for Submission: Annually, starting May 1, 2015

• First disclosure will only include 2014 data
  
• No disclosure required for 2012 or 2013 data
  

So in a nutshell, Minnesota reporting is coming back in 2015, starting with 2014 data related to a limited scope of payments for certain Minnesota-licensed practitioners that fall outside the scope of federal Sunshine.