American Medical Association, American College of Cardiology and almost 100 other national and state medical societies are supporting a Senate bill that would not require drug and device manufactures to report payments they made to physicians for receiving continuing medical education sessions, medical journal or textbooks, according to STAT.
Here are five key points:
1. The government launched OpenPayments in 2014, which puts such payments in a federal database. OpenPayments' aim was to disclose relations between companies and physicians that may influence medical practice and research.
2. The CME course has fueled fierce discussion with those opposing CME claiming drug and device companies control the curriculum. However, last year, industry support for CME reached $693 billion, up 2 percent from 2014.
3. CMS decided to impose the reporting requirement because physicians would pay for the course themselves, so the payments may influence physician's decisions.
4. Those in favor of the reporting exemption argue it may hurt medical practice. The bill's authors write, "Passage of this bill is urgently needed to remedy onerous and burdensome reporting obligations imposed by CMS that have already chilled the dissemination of medical textbooks and peer-reviewed medical reprints and journals, and to avert a similar negative impact on access to independent CME."
5. CMS has not yet responded to STAT as to whether it will consider changing the rule.
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