Since the inception of the Sunshine Act in 2010, life science companies operating in the US have had to disclose payments made to relevant health care providers (HCPs) and teaching hospitals in an online database. This legislation was largely focused on addressing the influence that pharma companies potentially had over HCPs’ and teaching hospitals’ prescribing habits. More recently, the Sunshine Act and physician payments database has expanded to include different types of nurses.
This expansion stems directly from the Support Act—enacted in October 2018 to combat the ongoing opioid crisis in the US. Section 6111 of this act, Fighting the Opioid Epidemic With Sunshine, makes clear that drug manufacturers must disclose transfers of value made to the following nursing titles:
- Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners or Clinical Nurse Specialists
- Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
- Certified Nurse-Midwife
Pharma and biotech companies have some time before they have to add this information to the Open Payments database. Tracking these payments will begin in January 2021, with the goal of adding them to the March 2022 Open Payments database. Depending on how much interaction they have with nurses, some companies may have more work ahead of these deadlines than others. Cutting Edge Information can help companies establish fair market value rates for all of these titles and many others—contact us today to schedule a demo and learn more.
