The Boston Globe: "Massachusetts health officials published online yesterday the most comprehensive state database in the country listing payments drug companies and medical device makers have made to doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, and other health care providers. The report lists $35.7 million in payments from hundreds of companies for the six months between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2009 … About half of that money, or $16.4 million, went to physicians. This is the first time Massachusetts has made such information public. Under a law passed two years ago, any drug or device company doing business in the state is now required to report certain payments of $50 or more" and bans companies from giving gifts to doctors. "The Massachusetts database shows that 5,048 physicians, or about 12 percent of the state’s doctors, received payments" (Lazar and Kowalczyk, 11/23).

Continued on Kaiser Health News