On Wednesday, November 21, 2012, Massachusetts’ Public Health Council (“Council”) approved amendments to the State’s Marketing Code of Conduct, which restricts certain gifts and payments by pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to Massachusetts health care practitioners (“HCPs”) and requires disclosure of payments and transfers of value to HCPs. The final regulations, effective as of December 7, 2012, primarily adopt the emergency regulations issued by the State in September but make a few substantive changes.
Importantly, the final regulations do not include language from the emergency regulations that eliminated the requirement that manufacturers report annually specific information regarding payments in connection with sales and marketing activities after calendar year 2012 reports. Instead, the final regulations only prohibit duplicative reporting to Massachusetts if manufacturers have already reported the same information pursuant to federal law (for example, the federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act), and such information is available to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (“DPH”).
The Council also adopted the revised provisions regarding modest meals substantially as written in the emergency regulations. Under the revision, manufacturers are allowed to provide modest meals and refreshments to HCPs at non-CME educational presentations, as long as manufacturers file quarterly reports detailing such meals. Notably, the Council declined to define “modest” with a clear monetary limit or specifically to ban alcohol at industry-funded events and presentations, as requested by public commenters. With regard to the required quarterly reports, the Council did include a new, open-ended category of information that must be reported: “such other information as determined necessary by the Commissioner.” It is not clear whether this requirement will be clarified in further regulations or guidance that DPH is expected to issue.
Looking forward, the full effect of Massachusetts’ final regulations will not be clear until the release of the final rule for the federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act, because that rule will determine the extent to which Massachusetts’ annual reporting requirement will be preempted. Based on Massachusetts’ final regulations, however, it appears the quarterly reports regarding meals at non-CME educational presentations will not be subject to preemption.