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The Physician Payments Sunshine Act And The Problem Of Pharmaceutical Companies' Influence Over Prescribing Physicians, Andrew L. Younkins
The Physician Payments Sunshine Act And The Problem Of Pharmaceutical Companies' Influence Over Prescribing Physicians, Andrew L. Younkins
Andrew L Younkins
Recently, concerns over physicians' conflict of interest have increased as the details of some doctors' consulting relationships with pharmaceutical companies surface. In an effort to cleanse medicine of egregiously conflicted doctors, Senator Grassley proposed of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act ("PPSA") in the Senate last year. The Act mandates reporting of uncommonly large payments by drug companies to doctors, but does not confront the panoply of more subtle yet more powerful methods the drug industry uses to influence prescriber behavior. This paper argues that industry-sponsored CME, small gifts, drug samples and drug detailers unconsciously influence physician prescribing behavior, and that …