& Discloses Fees Paid To Doctors

[Guest guest]

&

Discloses Fees Paid To Doctors

2 Comments

By Ed Silverman // July 9th, 2010 //

7:24 am

The healthcare giant joins a growing list of drugmakers that are

disclosing info about their financial ties to physicians. The move

comes after passage of the health care reform bill, which includes a

provision known as Physician Payments Sunshine that requires drugmakers

each year to record - starting 2012 - all gifts and payments to docs

and teaching hospitals. Posting begins in 2013.

The J & J list, however, offers both good news and bad news. The

good news? J & J is disclosing payments. The bad news? Since J & J

runs what are effectively different operating units, there are separate

lists for separate units - which makes it difficult to get the bigger

picture. The J & J units that have posted their first quarterly

reports are Ortho-McNeil-Janssen,

Centocor

Ortho

Biotech and Tibotec.

Why is there no aggregate disclosure? Because each link represents

and individual legal entity, a J & J spokesman tells The

Wall

Street Journal. Consequently, anyone wishing to compile what

J & J has paid docs will have to create their own spreadsheet. And

unlike the Pfizer

site, for instance, there is no info on money paid for meals,

non-educational items or research (back

story).

“The other way in which the J & J disclosures are not aggregated

is that each payment is reported separately, so a patient would have to

manually total each individual payment to know how much a physician had

received, even from a single operating unit.” says Allan Coukell,

director of the Pew Prescription Project, which worked for Sunshine

provision. And “J & J is reporting payments greater than $25, for any

individual who receives an aggregate of more than $250. The Sunshine

threshold is $10.”

A larger problem? The drugmakers that do post disclosures - GlaxoKline,

Pfizer,

Lilly, Merck

and Cephalon

- do not all use the same format. This is another impediment to gaining

a top-down view, which is why a uniform approach has been pushed (see

background

here). What do you get from J & J? The reports tally

each payment for speaking, consulting and, in a very few cases,

post-marketing safety surveillance. Take a look and you’ll see numerous

docs received several thousand dollars each during this year’s first

quarter.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Kassirer

[Guest guest]

&

Discloses Fees Paid To Doctors

2 Comments

By Ed Silverman // July 9th, 2010 //

7:24 am

The healthcare giant joins a growing list of drugmakers that are

disclosing info about their financial ties to physicians. The move

comes after passage of the health care reform bill, which includes a

provision known as Physician Payments Sunshine that requires drugmakers

each year to record - starting 2012 - all gifts and payments to docs

and teaching hospitals. Posting begins in 2013.

The J & J list, however, offers both good news and bad news. The

good news? J & J is disclosing payments. The bad news? Since J & J

runs what are effectively different operating units, there are separate

lists for separate units - which makes it difficult to get the bigger

picture. The J & J units that have posted their first quarterly

reports are Ortho-McNeil-Janssen,

Centocor

Ortho

Biotech and Tibotec.

Why is there no aggregate disclosure? Because each link represents

and individual legal entity, a J & J spokesman tells The

Wall

Street Journal. Consequently, anyone wishing to compile what

J & J has paid docs will have to create their own spreadsheet. And

unlike the Pfizer

site, for instance, there is no info on money paid for meals,

non-educational items or research (back

story).

“The other way in which the J & J disclosures are not aggregated

is that each payment is reported separately, so a patient would have to

manually total each individual payment to know how much a physician had

received, even from a single operating unit.” says Allan Coukell,

director of the Pew Prescription Project, which worked for Sunshine

provision. And “J & J is reporting payments greater than $25, for any

individual who receives an aggregate of more than $250. The Sunshine

threshold is $10.”

A larger problem? The drugmakers that do post disclosures - GlaxoKline,

Pfizer,

Lilly, Merck

and Cephalon

- do not all use the same format. This is another impediment to gaining

a top-down view, which is why a uniform approach has been pushed (see

background

here). What do you get from J & J? The reports tally

each payment for speaking, consulting and, in a very few cases,

post-marketing safety surveillance. Take a look and you’ll see numerous

docs received several thousand dollars each during this year’s first

quarter.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Kassirer

[Guest guest]

&

Discloses Fees Paid To Doctors

2 Comments

By Ed Silverman // July 9th, 2010 //

7:24 am

The healthcare giant joins a growing list of drugmakers that are

disclosing info about their financial ties to physicians. The move

comes after passage of the health care reform bill, which includes a

provision known as Physician Payments Sunshine that requires drugmakers

each year to record - starting 2012 - all gifts and payments to docs

and teaching hospitals. Posting begins in 2013.

The J & J list, however, offers both good news and bad news. The

good news? J & J is disclosing payments. The bad news? Since J & J

runs what are effectively different operating units, there are separate

lists for separate units - which makes it difficult to get the bigger

picture. The J & J units that have posted their first quarterly

reports are Ortho-McNeil-Janssen,

Centocor

Ortho

Biotech and Tibotec.

Why is there no aggregate disclosure? Because each link represents

and individual legal entity, a J & J spokesman tells The

Wall

Street Journal. Consequently, anyone wishing to compile what

J & J has paid docs will have to create their own spreadsheet. And

unlike the Pfizer

site, for instance, there is no info on money paid for meals,

non-educational items or research (back

story).

“The other way in which the J & J disclosures are not aggregated

is that each payment is reported separately, so a patient would have to

manually total each individual payment to know how much a physician had

received, even from a single operating unit.” says Allan Coukell,

director of the Pew Prescription Project, which worked for Sunshine

provision. And “J & J is reporting payments greater than $25, for any

individual who receives an aggregate of more than $250. The Sunshine

threshold is $10.”

A larger problem? The drugmakers that do post disclosures - GlaxoKline,

Pfizer,

Lilly, Merck

and Cephalon

- do not all use the same format. This is another impediment to gaining

a top-down view, which is why a uniform approach has been pushed (see

background

here). What do you get from J & J? The reports tally

each payment for speaking, consulting and, in a very few cases,

post-marketing safety surveillance. Take a look and you’ll see numerous

docs received several thousand dollars each during this year’s first

quarter.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Kassirer

[Guest guest]

&

Discloses Fees Paid To Doctors

2 Comments

By Ed Silverman // July 9th, 2010 //

7:24 am

The healthcare giant joins a growing list of drugmakers that are

disclosing info about their financial ties to physicians. The move

comes after passage of the health care reform bill, which includes a

provision known as Physician Payments Sunshine that requires drugmakers

each year to record - starting 2012 - all gifts and payments to docs

and teaching hospitals. Posting begins in 2013.

The J & J list, however, offers both good news and bad news. The

good news? J & J is disclosing payments. The bad news? Since J & J

runs what are effectively different operating units, there are separate

lists for separate units - which makes it difficult to get the bigger

picture. The J & J units that have posted their first quarterly

reports are Ortho-McNeil-Janssen,

Centocor

Ortho

Biotech and Tibotec.

Why is there no aggregate disclosure? Because each link represents

and individual legal entity, a J & J spokesman tells The

Wall

Street Journal. Consequently, anyone wishing to compile what

J & J has paid docs will have to create their own spreadsheet. And

unlike the Pfizer

site, for instance, there is no info on money paid for meals,

non-educational items or research (back

story).

“The other way in which the J & J disclosures are not aggregated

is that each payment is reported separately, so a patient would have to

manually total each individual payment to know how much a physician had

received, even from a single operating unit.” says Allan Coukell,

director of the Pew Prescription Project, which worked for Sunshine

provision. And “J & J is reporting payments greater than $25, for any

individual who receives an aggregate of more than $250. The Sunshine

threshold is $10.”

A larger problem? The drugmakers that do post disclosures - GlaxoKline,

Pfizer,

Lilly, Merck

and Cephalon

- do not all use the same format. This is another impediment to gaining

a top-down view, which is why a uniform approach has been pushed (see

background

here). What do you get from J & J? The reports tally

each payment for speaking, consulting and, in a very few cases,

post-marketing safety surveillance. Take a look and you’ll see numerous

docs received several thousand dollars each during this year’s first

quarter.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Kassirer