No. SB 596
Filed under Healthcare.
Transparency in Health Care; Defining the term “personal benefit”; requiring health care practitioners to report any personal benefit received from a pharmaceutical company to the Department of Health; requiring the department to establish uniform reporting procedures and a publicly accessible online database for the reports; requiring the department to establish certain guidelines for health care practitioners, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDEvery health care practitioner must report to the Department of Health any personal benefit -- gifts, speaking fees, sponsored travel, research funding, free samples, and more -- they receive from a pharmaceutical company, updated at least quarterly.
The department must build a public, searchable database of these reports, so anyone can look up a specific practitioner or drug company and see what benefits changed hands.
The Auditor General must audit compliance every year, and a first violation triggers professional discipline; a second or later violation becomes a criminal misdemeanor of the first degree.
AIEvery health care practitioner must report to the Department of Health any personal benefit they receive from a pharmaceutical company, with reports updated at least quarterly.
AIA reportable personal benefit is any economic or noneconomic advantage received outside the practitioner-patient relationship, expressly including gifts, kickback fees, speaking fees, sponsored travel, research funding, and free samples.
AIThe department must build a publicly accessible online database that lets anyone search the reports by practitioner name, pharmaceutical company name, or type of benefit received.
AIA first violation triggers professional discipline by the practitioner's own board; a second or later violation becomes a first-degree misdemeanor, a criminal offense on top of any licensing consequences.
AIThe Auditor General must conduct annual audits to check that practitioners are complying, that reported data is accurate, and to address any conflicts of interest found.
AIThe department must separately establish guidelines for practitioners on ethical practices when they engage with pharmaceutical companies.