Seeking to toughen the Sunshine Act, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) plans to introduce a bill that would require drug makers to report payments that are made to nonprofit organizations and patient advocacy groups, according to several sources familiar with the effort.
The move comes eight years after the Sunshine Act was created in response to concerns that industry payments were unduly influencing medical research and practice, an issue that arose after a Senate Finance Committee probe. The law was subsequently folded into the Affordable Care Act and a federal database was launched in 2014 to which companies must report payments to physicians.
Known as OpenPayments, the database has proven to be a useful tool for tracking financial relationships between drug makers and doctors. But companies are not required to report payments to other health care providers, such as nurses or physician assistants, who may also write prescriptions. Companies are also not required to disclose payments to third-party groups, which critics say should be addressed.
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