Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18520

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Electronic Source

Silverman E
Massachusetts Gift Ban For Doctors Remains Intact
Pharmalot 2010 Aug 2
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/08/massachusetts-gift-ban-for-doctors-remains-intact/

Full text:

An effort in Massachusetts to repeal a controversial law that prohibits drugmakers from giving gifts and meals to doctors and other healthcare professional has apparently ended. The provision, which had been contained in a proposed economic development bill, was removed during a legislative conference late Friday, according to two consumer groups that fought against repeal.
The maneuver would appear to end a contentious battle over a law that upset doctors, and pitted various consumer and patient groups against restauranteurs and the pharmaceutical industry. The law, which you can read here and here, was passed two years ago and was seen as a way to limit undue industry influence over medical practice, but industry supporters argued the measure is hostile toward drugmakers (background here). One bit of fallout: the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, based in Milwaukee, canceled its 2015 annual meeting in Boston (see here).
“It all started with our state budget and there was a push in the senate,” Georgia Maheras of Health Care for All, and manager of Massachusetts Prescription Reform Coalition, tells us. “The senate budget piece was an effort to alter the law. What they wanted to alter was just the meals provision. This was permit to meals back in restaurant. And then it got much more exciting. As part of an economic development bill that had been churning through the statehouse for past few months, the house voted to include a repeal of the entire gift ban and disclosure law…but we beat back a tough onslaught.”
The law, by the way, bans ‘modest and occasional’ meals are allowed in a doctor’s office or hospital setting, a move that Maheras says was designed to accommodate medical device companies. However, the legislature never defined ‘modest and occasional.’ In any event, meals are not allowed in a restaurant, although catering can take place in any venue. We await a reply from PhRMA. UPDATE: PhRMA says: “This repeal effort was started by legislators concerned that the law is hurting the state’s economy. And it is certainly true that it adds an extra level of administrative complexity for companies in the state. Pharmaceutical marketing is already effectively regulated by the federal government.”