New York Times (01/16/12) Pear, Robert
The federal government is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment. Under the new standards, if a company has just one product covered by Medicare or Medicaid, it will have to disclose all its payments to doctors other than its own employees. The data will be posted on a Web site, where it will be available to the public. Companies will be subject to a penalty up to $10,000 for each payment they fail to report. A company that knowingly fails to report payments will be subject to a penalty up to $100,000 for each violation, up to a total of $1 million a year. The new requirements will take effect soon. Under the healthcare reform law, the administration was supposed to establish payment-reporting procedures by Oct. 1, 2011. The public will have until Feb. 17 to comment on the proposals. After considering the comments, Medicare officials will issue final rules with the force of la w.

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