What the Sunshine Act means for health care transparency

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, a part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, was developed by the federal government to allow anyone to look up how much compensation doctors are getting from pharmaceutical or medical device companies. It is a long-awaited piece of transparency meant to empower consumers and reduce conflicts of interest among physicians. But like so much else of the ACA, the Sunshine Act remains largely unimplemented, though calls from high-level members of the medical community are urging the White House to take action. Meanwhile, doctors embarrassed at what the Sunshine Act might reveal, are not looking forward to its full implementation.