Bill would require doctors to disclose payments from drug, device manufacturers

New legislation inspired by a Studio City woman’s failed breast reconstruction surgery would force doctors in California to tell their patients annually about any money or gifts they receive from drug and medical device companies. The federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, a law signed in 2010, already requires the companies to report such payments to a public "Open Payments" database run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But proponents of Assembly Bill 1278 say the federal act has one major flaw: most patients have no idea the database exists. AB 1278 would remedy that by requiring doctors to give patients a notice each year explaining how to access the Open Payments database and listing any payments that doctor received from drug and device companies in the past three years.