The ‘Sunshine’ provision of the new health-care-reform lawwill soon go
into effect—with definite implications for medical exhibitors and, by extension, medical trade shows. Meeting planners need to educate themselves now.
BY HUNTER R. SLATON
aConvene reader told us about a session he’d recently attended at the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association’s (HCEA) Healthcare Convention MarketingSummit, which was held on Jan. 20 at the GaylordNational Resort &Convention Center, just outsideWashington, D.C.One of themost provocative topics dur- ing the session—a “Compliance Think Tank” panel discussion that featured an executive from a pharmaceutical com- pany, as well as current and former officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—was a provision in last year’s health-care-reform law that could have major implications for medical trade shows. But even though it goes into effect next Janu- ary, many industry professionals don’t seem to have it on their radar. The provision in question—part of
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) signed into law inMarch 2010 —mandates that “manufacturer[s] of a covered drug, device, biological, ormedical supply” report to the U.S. Department of Health&HumanServices (HHS) any “pay- ment or transfer of value” to “covered recipients,” which at pres- ent means physicians and teaching hospitals, although this
40 pcmaconvene April 2011 “Until the final
language is made public, everybody’s guessing. All anyone can do is guess or tell you what they’ve heard.”
definition could be expanded. The discussion on this topic dur- ing theHCEAsession,Convene’s source said, turned to theways in which medical trade-show organizers might be asked to assist these manufacturers—that is, their exhibitors —in gathering the information required by the new law; and how, if organizers prove unwilling or unable to assist them in this endeavor, some companies might stop exhibiting. And that’s something that no one
wants.
Industry’s Problem? In our initial research, itwas easy to turn up a number of meeting pro- fessionals who either weren’t aware
of these impending reporting provi- sions or were sure that they had noth-
ing to do with them — that it was “industry’s problem,” meaning the phar- maceutical and medical-device industries. “I have not heard anything about this at all,”
one source told Convene.“We have a couple of pharma
companies at our showwhohave very strict compliance depart- ments—nothing has been indicated to us at this time.” Another source said: “It is not on our radar yet, because the rule does not