Doc Gift Limits Supported, Research Payments Remain Secret
Attendees of a state Department of Public Health hearing in Worcester Monday agreed that gifts of more than $50 by drug and medical device companies to doctors should be made public, but there was less agreement about whether drug company payments to doctors for research and clinical trials should be disclosed.
Eleven people commented at the hearing held at the UMass Medical School in Worcester as the department works to shape the details of regulations for implementing the state's health care cost containment law, which was passed last year. In addition to regulating gifts to doctors, it also requires doctors that receive payments from drug companies to disclose those payments to patients.
State Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, one of the legislators who developed the law, said making drug company payments to doctors a public matter protects the public. Only certain research and clinical trial payments should remain private, he said.
On the other side of the debate was Dr. Terry Flotte, dean of UMass Medical School and a cystic fibrosis researcher. He said the law was a good idea, but that research and clinical trials should be exempt from public disclosure.
Martha Sullivan, a member of the public who testified, asked the DPH to require companies to make full disclosures of all payments to doctors because, she said, it's important to end the philosophy that "drug-driven medicine is the only medicine to practice."
Comments will be taken by the DPH through Monday, Jan. 19.
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