AMA MD's - it's nearly time to opt out of letting drug reps know what you Rx

The opt-out (Prescribing Data Restriction Program) starts in July. Full details of the program will be available via AMA Database Licensees (DBL).

Here are the main ponts:

PDRP enrollment will begin on the AMA's Web site so that the program can take effect on July 1, 2006. Enrolling in the program is sometimes known as "election."

Enrollment will remain in effect for three years from the date on which the AMA receives the physician's election.

Pharmaceutical companies will have ample time (approximately 90 days from receiving a notice that a physician has enrolled) to make the internal system changes needed to suppress data from being released to restricted employees.

Physicians may revoke the election at any time by notifying the AMA.

Pharmaceutical employees having direct contact with physicians will be blocked from accessing restricted data on PDRP physicians. The block-outs apply to part-time and temporary sales employees and contractors, as well as full-time sales reps and first-line sales managers.

Restricted data are defined as any product-level data regarding the prescribing practices of an identifiable physician who has made the PRDP election. This includes measures of prescription volume in absolute and percentage terms, the associated dollar value of a physician's prescribing, any indicators of change in these measures, as well as any means of ranking, benchmarking, or grouping physicians that may reveal prescribing habits for a particular product. Furthermore, sales representatives must not "reverse engineer" or re-identify any prescribing information of a PDRP physician.

The restrictions do not apply to (a) deciles at the market or therapeutic class level, (b) segmented data that are not likely to reveal the actual or estimated activity of an individual physician, or (c) data on products ordered by physicians from pharmaceutical companies.

A physician's participation in the PDRP has no bearing whatsoever on the AMA's "No Contact List," which has been in place for more than 20 years to prevent listed physicians' names from being licensed for marketing purposes.

Compliance will be gauged by physician complaints to the AMA.

Isolated and minor infractions will likely result in an investigation, followed by a warning. Those manufacturers who show a disregard for the program's requirements by maintaining a pattern of abuse may lose access to AMA data, and, if infractions continue, may subsequently lose access to HIO data.

The information available to the "home office" will not change, regardless of physician enrollment in PDRP. This program will not affect headquarter business systems. As long as the industry complies with PDRP, the program will not restrict access to information used in efficient marketing and compensation practices.

PharmExec