Monday, October 6, 2014

Sunshine Act

Did you know that part of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) is a provision called the Sunshine Act?  This requires manufacturers of drugs and medical devices to disclose how much they're paying doctors  and teaching hospitals every year.

During the last five months of 2013 payments to physicians and teaching hospitals was $3.5 Billion.  Now how many people think those costs aren't being passed down to patients and raising the cost of health care?

Allan Coukell, director of the Pew Prescriptions Project, said recently that "The financial relationships between doctors and drug companies and medical-device companies are a source of conflicts of interest."  Duh.  What isn't surprising is how the lobbyists for those companies have managed to keep everything hidden from the public for so long thanks to their friends in government.

Finally we can look forward to exposing all of the games in medicine.  And maybe even getting costs down to a reasonable level in the United States like the rest of the world.