American journal of law & medicine
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The Physician Payments Sunshine Act ("Sunshine Act"), enacted to address financial conflicts in health care, is the first comprehensive federal legislation mandating public reporting of payments between drug companies, device manufacturers, and medicine. This article analyzes the Sunshine Act's uneven record, exploring how the law serves as an intriguing example of the uncertain case for transparency regulation in health care. The Sunshine Act's bumpy rollout demonstrates that commanding transparency through legislation can be arduous because of considerable implementation challenges. ⋯ Public reporting has, for example, made more feasible linking industry payment information with Medicare reimbursement data. As a result, policymakers can more closely examine correlations between industry spending directed at individual physicians and their prescribing and referral decisions. Moreover, savvy counsel are recognizing that Sunshine Act information provides explosive evidence in private civil litigation and this Article explores the first wave of cases.
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Despite the U. S. substantially outspending peer high income nations with almost 18% of GDP dedicated to health care, on any number of statistical measurements from life expectancy to birth rates to chronic disease, 1 the U. S. achieves inferior health outcomes. ⋯ The article then examines the conflicting positions of the various United States regulatory schemes and enforcement agencies governing health care, and whether they can be reconciled with the stated goal of the government, often referred to as the "Triple Aim": 16 improving quality of care, improving population health, and lowering health care costs. It examines fundamental, systemic challenges to achieving the "Triple Aim": longstanding health care regulatory laws that impede adoption of innovative delivery systems beyond their current "demonstration project" status, and antitrust enforcement that promotes waste and duplication in densely populated areas, while preventing necessary consolidation to more efficiently reach rural areas. The article concludes with recommendations for promoting efficiency through modest reconciliation of the conflicting goals and regulations in health care.