Cegedim Dendrite Helps Companies Report Gifts and Payments to Physicians

For the nation’s pharmaceutical companies, July 1 may be as dreaded as the April 15 tax deadline.

On that date, all companies providing promotional gifts or other payments to prescribing physicians in Maine and District of Columbia must submit exhaustive reports to the respective governments. If the companies do not, they potentially face millions of dollars in penalties, as well as negative media coverage.

“Companies respond to these regulations in several different ways,” says Bill Buzzeo, Vice President and General Manager, Cegedim Dendrite’s Compliance Solutions, which provides the industry’s most comprehensive automated product for filing gifting and payment reports, known as State Guardian™.

“For the most part, companies comply with the regulations by generating the reports internally, either manually or with customized applications,” Buzzeo says. “But in some cases, companies simply do not comply.”

Maine and the District of Columbia are among a growing number of states that require pharmaceutical companies to report any payment or gift exceeding $25, ranging from the physician’s participation in a clinical research study to a free lunch for the office staff.

Other states that require detailed reports are West Virginia, Minnesota, and Vermont, with California and Nevada requiring companies to post their reports online for public viewing. Of the seven, Vermont has taken the most aggressive action by imposing penalties for non-compliance. Meanwhile, there is pending legislation in 15 other states.

As of now, these prescriber gift and payment laws do not exist at the federal level, but that may change in the near future. The U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives are considering bills that would be more comprehensive than the current state laws. For instance, pharmaceutical companies would have to document their gifts and payments to physicians participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Cegedim Dendrite, which has vast experience with pharmaceutical operations data and government regulations, just announced the latest version of its State Guardian technology and services solution. By using this product, pharmaceutical companies would be able to compile and prepare the required gifting reports automatically, thus removing a tremendous administrative burden. Another benefit is that companies can finally obtain multiple views into their aggregate spending at the prescriber, product, and event levels.