Obamacare Sunshine Act sheds light on $3.5B paid to doctors

U.S. doctors and teaching hospitals received nearly $3.5 billion from pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers over the last five months of 2013, according to a partial set of data released Tuesday by the federal government.

The data mark the first disclosure of anything approaching comprehensive information on the once-confidential financial ties between doctors and drug- and device-makers.

The data include 4.4 million payments and other transfers of value by drug- and device-makers to some 546,000 U.S. physicians and 1,360 teaching hospitals made between Aug. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2013.

But it is significantly incomplete, and physician and industry groups have raised concerns about accuracy and context.

About 40 percent of the information was "de-identified" essentially redacting a doctor's name and other information because federal officials could not confirm the information's accuracy.

Patient advocates and lawmakers have long pushed to make the data public, saying such arrangements are rife with potential conflicts. Several studies have shown that payments or gifts, however small, alter doctors' prescribing patterns and influence how they practice medicine.

The data were released as a requirement under the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, a lesser-known provision of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Federal officials hope publication of the data will help consumers make better health care decisions by better understanding their doctors' relationship with industry, said Dr. Shantanu Agrawal, Medicare's deputy administrator and director of the Center for Program Integrity, in a conference call with reporters.

"We are taking a big step forward in shining the light on these financial arrangements," Agrawal said. "Using this new data, it is now possible to conduct a wide range of analyses of payments made by drug and device manufacturers that were never possible before."

Nearly 40 pharmaceutical and medical device companies in Illinois paid more than $100 million to doctors and teaching hospitals across the country, including Illinois, according to the Tribune analysis.

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Obamacare Sunshine Act sheds light on $3.5B paid to doctors