JO - Health Care Compliance Association

Pros
n Single point of data entry
n No data duplication
n Entrenched in-house process
By Matt Dowell
Editor’s Note: Matt Dowell is the President following states: Alaska (HB454), California
of Collaborative Reporting, Inc. He may be (AB45), Colorado (SB 1), Hawaii (HB 32),
reached by e-mail at http://www.collabreports.cosetts
(HB 2659), Michigan (HB 5706), New
Illinois (HB 656), Iowa (HB 503), Massachu-
Hampshire (HB 703), New York (AB 2160),
Many states have recently passed Oklahoma (HB 1542), Pennsylvania (SB
laws calling for the reporting of 320), Rhode Island (HB 6141), Tennessee
medical marketing data. A larger (SB 1441), and Washington (SB 5149).
number of states and districts are currently
considering similar laws. This article will The data required for reporting in each state
briefly touch on some of the newer reporting includes, but is not limited to:
requirements and a few technical and business
solutions that can reduce the time spent Who: Name, credentials, and “type” of recipient
gathering and reporting on your sales events What: Gifts, with quantity and cost, and
and keep your company compliant, without where given
fines, and out of the news.
Where: What clinic, hospital, or conference
When: Date gift was given
The medical marketing laws vary in their
requirements, for example:
Reporting this data poses several challenges.
For a significant portion of pharmaceutical
Minnesota
and medical device manufacturers this requires
A company cannot spend more than $50 per a new business process. This process requires
practitioner, and must file annual reports with gathering the necessary information from each
the Board of Pharmacy.
field sales representative after each marketing
event. Your solution will need to conform to
Vermont
your current and future compliance needs or
Annual reporting of all marketing activities you risk being caught in a constantly changing
is required through the state’s Web site or a business process cycle. The following section
custom batch process.
will summarize a few current options along
with their pros and cons.
Maine
Reporting of all pharmaceutical marketing Using and customizing current tools
activities greater than $25 is required, starting Your current in-house financial reporting or
in July 2007.
customer relationship management (CRM)
tool might have customization options that
Marketing disclosure laws have also been would be beneficial in your annual reporting.
enacted in California, Washington D.C., Check with your sales operations team to see
and West Virginia. Very similar laws, with if you can generate reports based upon dollar
reporting requirements, are pending in the spent per client and location.
Cons
n Not flexible
n Most likely not accessible for remote sales
team
n Can be expensive to customize
Manually gathering the data
If your sales team is small enough, the gathering
of data could be maintained by a single
person who creates a spreadsheet or small
database to maintain the data. Currently, a
handful of states accept data in spreadsheet
format. The sales team members could use
e-mail to send the data to the person who
maintains the spreadsheet.
Pros
n Quickly implemented
n No new business process to integrate
n Flexible
Cons
n Resource intensive
n Low quality
n High risk
n Can easily fall behind new regulations
The new breed of marketing compliance
tools
New to the market are a handful of companies
and legal firms that specialize in medical
marketing compliance. Some offer services
and software built specifically to help companies
compile, search, and report their state
marketing information.
Pros
n Integrate with many CRM applications
n Web enabled
Continued on page 22
September 2006
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