Sunshine rules finally drop (MassDevice)
The White House finally releases long-awaited Sunshine Act rules to regulate and monitor the financial relationships between doctors and the healthcare industry.
The Obama Administration finally released long-awaiting transparency guidelines governing the relationships between doctors and medical device and drug makers.
The rules are more than 15 months late and involved legislators vowed to keep on eye on how the law is put into action.
“I will stay vigilant about how this law is implemented, especially after the delays seen already,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in prepared remarks.
Grassley helped co-author the Physician Payments Sunshine Act and introduced it Congress in 2009 with co-sponsor Herb Kohl (D-Wisc).
The newly released rule requires that healthcare companies begin tracking their financial relationships starting August 1, 2013, and to begin reporting to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services by March 31, 2014, Healthwatch reported.