Category: Gift ban

Mass. gift ban repeal dies on the vine

August 4, 2010 by MassDevice staff

It looks like the Massachusetts "gift ban" won’t be repealed after all.

A provision to spike the Commonwealth's ban on gifts for physicians from medical device and pharmaceutical companies failed to make it into the final omnibus economic development bill on Beacon Hill, meaning the gift ban remains intact unless the legislature brings up the issue again next session.

The Mass. House of Representatives voted to kill the 2008 gift ban law in early July.

Harvard Medical School joins the gift ban movement

July 21, 2010 by MassDevice staff

Harvard Medical School is jumping on the gift band bandwagon with a sweeping policy to regulate contact by its 11,000 faculty members with the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.

The school's new policy, slated to go into effect Jan. 1, 2011, will bar HMS faculty from delivering promotional talks for device and drug makers and from accepting personal gifts, travel, or meals, according to a report in The Boston Globe.

Mass. medical device leaders hope for repeal of gift ban's "death by 1,000 cuts"

July 9, 2010 by MassDevice staff

The inclusion of a repeal of the "gift ban" law in economic development legislation that passed the Mass. House of Representatives on a 145-4 vote has pleased many in the medical device industry.

Richard Packer, CEO of Chelmsford, Mass.-based cardiac device maker Zoll Medical Corp. (NSDQ:ZOLL), told MassDevice that it's "silly" that a doctor can visit Zoll but the company isn't allowed to serve them a sandwich.

Mass. House votes to lift gift ban in effort to boost business

July 8, 2010 by State House New...

By State House News Service

Reversing course on a new law aimed at diminishing the influence on doctors by pharmaceutical and medical device companies, the House on Wednesday voted to strike the so-called gift ban law, which critics say has hurt commerce in the medical and restaurant industries. An amendment to preserve the ban attracted 40 votes, with 108 against.

The elimination of the gift ban was included in economic development legislation that cleared the House 145-4 and now needs to be reconciled with a Senate bill in a conference committee.

Study: Most docs find industry payments "appropriate"

July 7, 2010 by MassDevice staff

Gift bans may be all the rage on the federal and local level, but they're not seen as a dire necessity among physicians, according to a survey of nearly 600 doctors.

The anonymous study revealed that 72.2 percent of the doctors surveyed believe industry-sponsored meals and other "small gifts related to clinical practice" are appropriate and a quarter consider large gifts appropriate. Although gifts as significant as vacations were perceived as acceptable by only 10.3 percent of the surveyed docs, gifts such as textbooks received a 83.2 percent favorability rating.

Mass. restaurants seek gift ban exemption

July 7, 2010 by State House New...

By Kyle Cheney, State House News Service

Massachusetts restaurateurs hurting for business in an unsettled economy and frustrated by lawmakers' willingness to exempt casinos from alcohol service limits are pleading with lawmakers to give them a break this week, over the objection of patient advocates.

Reports: Mass. House looks to kill gift ban

June 24, 2010 by MassDevice staff

An omnibus economic development bill wending its way through the Mass. House of Representatives would put paid to the Bay State's two-year-old "gift ban" governing the relationship between the medical device and pharmaceutical industries and physicians.

The gift ban, passed in 2008 and put into effect last year, was aimed at reducing the influence of Big Pharma and device makers over healthcare. It requires companies to report any cash gift of more than $50 to a public database and mandates outright bans on gifts like promotional pens, meals, tickets and other boondoggles.