Understanding the Sunshine Law 

The main purpose of the law is to provide patients with enhanced transparency into the relationships their health care providers have with life science manufacturers, including medical technology companies. The Sunshine Law requires that payments and transfers of value made by life science manufacturers to “Physicians” and “Teaching Hospitals” be reported. Under the Sunshine Law, “Physicians” include doctors of medicine and osteopathy, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and licensed chiropractors.  The SUPPORT Act expanded these “Covered Recipients” to include Physician Assistants (PA), Nurse Practitioners (NP). Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS), Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA). Anesthesiologist Assistants (AA/CAA), and Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM). 

To learn more about The Sunshine Law, read our brochure

Background on Industry-Physician Relationships 

There are numerous ways in which medical innovation companies compensate Health Care Professionals (HCPs) for their time, expertise and intellectual property, in connection with the development of new medical technologies, the improvement of existing technologies, and training and education of other health care professionals in the safe and effective use of medical technology, among other beneficial services. 

These arrangements fuel advances in medical technology, and improve medical care and the quality of healthcare available to American patients and consumers.  Specific examples under the Sunshine Nature of Payment Categories are below. 

AdvaMed’s Efforts 

AdvaMed supports appropriate disclosure of relationships between medical technology companies and health care professionals. Our member companies recognize that strong ethical standards are critical to ensuring appropriate collaboration between the medical device industry and health care professionals to produce the world’s most advanced medical technologies. 

Physicians provide valuable recommendations on how to improve the safety and functioning of existing devices and offer ongoing consulting to furnish expert technical assistance and feedback to companies in the development and refinement of those improvements. 

In short, physician expertise, feedback, and experience are critical to ongoing advances and innovations in medical technology. Our Sunshine Implementation Working Group – with over 100 compliance professionals – develops policy recommendations to develop clear rules and definitions to facilitate a common approach by manufacturers. By seeking to ensure that collected data is meaningful and consistent with the legislative intent and policy objectives, our Working Group encourages health care professionals and teaching hospitals to participate ethically in bona fide collaborations that fuel medical device innovation and improve patient care.