Payment disclosures: 'Compliance in name only'

A Minnesota law requiring drugmakers to report payments to medical practitioners is generating data that is incomplete, inconsistent and hard to search. Every spring, they trickle in: reports from dozens of drug companies disclosing how much they paid Minnesota physicians in consulting fees the previous year. This year is no different. Some 86 drug companies made hundreds of payments totaling $13 million to Minnesota practitioners -- defined as anyone who can prescribe drugs. But if consumers want to review the records, they will have to be patient. The Minnesota Board of Pharmacy won't post them online for a few weeks. Even then, the most dogged researcher may be flummoxed by documents that are sprawling, hard to search and often vague. And reformers who hoped that payment disclosure would curb inappropriate ties between... [read full story]                    

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