With Republican lawmakers pushing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there is rising fear amidst researchers, media, and the public that the section of the law that created the Open Payments program, namely the Sunshine Act, will face the chopping block.
For the record, the enactment of the Open Payments program has shed light on the extent of the relationships that exist between the pharma industry and HCPs/HCOs at large. In the words of Genevieve Pham-Kanter, an economist at Drexel University in Philadelphia who researches physician-industry relationships and conflicts of interest in medicine, “Because of Open Payments, for example, we now know that about 40% of U.S. doctors receive industry payments and 65% of patients regularly visit doctors who receive industry payments.”
Now that the Republicans have laid the basis for repeal through budget reconciliation by passing budget resolutions in the House and Senate, several provisions of the ACA are in danger. In case of a repeal, much of the information about the financial ties between physicians and the pharma industry will become inaccessible not just for the public but to the media and researchers as well.
At the moment, no predictions can be made regarding the fate of the ACA and the Sunshine Act, together with what might replace it. Although some of the bills doing the rounds for replacement contain sections on transparency, they are in no way related to physician payments. But the good news is that certain Republicans have vowed to uphold the Sunshine Act. In the words of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, “I’ll continue to fight for the (Sunshine Act) if there’s any effort to weaken it or end it. The Sunshine Act is valuable to patients, consumers, researchers and the public as a whole. It makes sense, it’s working well, and it should stay as is.”
