The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a final rule for implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act on Feb. 1, which will bring transparency to the financial relationships between physicians and drug and medical device companies. Allan Coukell, director of medical programs for The Pew Charitable Trusts, issued the following statement in response:
“Transparency will do a great deal to inform and protect patients and to instill greater confidence in physicians and our nation's health care industry. We applaud the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for issuing the Sunshine regulation, which will now allow manufacturers to comply with their reporting obligations under the law. The final rule contains a number of improvements over the earlier draft, including the elimination of loopholes that could allow financial transactions to go unreported.”
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