Physician Payment Sunshine Act 2009: Comparison of House and Senate Provisions

The next three weeks the Senate will be tied up in the debate on healthcare reform.   

In each Healthcare reform bill (House and Senate) include provisions for disclosure of payments to healthcare professionals.

 We have produced a comparison of the Sunshine provisions in each of the two bills. 

One stark difference is that the house version begins reporting payments from 2010, and the senate version requires reporting payments beginning in 2012.

It is also important to note that the House version includes the kitchen sink of people and organizations that receive payments for services, donations, and grants.  The Senate version focuses reporting of payments to physicians and teaching hospitals.

Neither version provides context to the payments (many payments for research and education also include significant expenses).  These provisions may further incentive manufactures to move their research, education and publications to friendlier regions such as Central Europe and Asia.

Comparison of House Senate Sunshine Provisions – November 30, 2009