Letting the sunshine in: shining a new light on physician-industry relationships

The pending federal healthcare reform legislation includes Physician Payment Sunshine provisions that would mandate public disclosure of virtually all payments by industry to US physicians on government websites. The requirements reflect a growing trend toward public disclosure of payments following high-profile government investigations of allegedly improper payments and undisclosed conflicts of interests. The pending law world require broad disclosure and will affect most physicians. Industry and physicians groups have offered qualified support to the legislation.