Chuck Grassley: 10 People Who Changed the Medtech IndustryChuck Grassley: 10 People Who Changed the Medtech Industry
Grassley, a U.S. senator from Iowa, cowrote the Physician Payment Sunshine Act.
June 10, 2013
If this were a list of people who have championed the medical device industry, it would indubitably include senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
But we are looking at people who changed the industry, for better or for worse. And no one has had greater impact in terms of Congressional policy and oversight than Hatch’s Republican counterpart from Iowa, senator Charles Ernest “Chuck” Grassley.
Grassley is a coauthor of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, which was introduced long before the ACA was ever conceived. But it is through the ACA that the Sunshine Act became the law of the land.
Now, the onus falls on device makers and other medical suppliers, pharma, and biotech companies to disclose annually how much they pay their physician consultants.
As its name suggests, the law aims to bring transparency to a relationship that has long remained murky. We assume doctors have the best interests of their patients at heart even if they accept money from companies for their consulting work. Now, how much they receive and whether it constitutes a conflict of interest is left up to patients, who can search the public record.
A Web site has been created to identify which companies will be required to formally report each payment made to physicians. The first report is due in March 2014, and companies and applicable group purchasing organizations must begin collecting data starting August 1, 2013.
Though it puts a burden on the industry in terms of data collection, the Sunshine Act also eases the burden by preempting state laws. As stories of outsize payments to doctors were being reported, individual states were rushing to enact their own sunshine legislation. If those state laws had prevailed and Grassley’s Sunshine Act perished, then device makers might have had to abide by 50 different versions.
Grassley’s impact on the device industry also extends beyond the Sunshine Act. Over the years, he has been on the forefront of investigating the alleged fraudulent marketing practices of both pharmaceutical companies and device makers.
You May Also Like