NEWS AND NOTES FOR THE MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS INDUSTRY

Special Forces Hostage rescue at SOFIC 2012. For more, see p. 22.

Sunshiny Day The health-care law’s Sunshine provision has ‘vast’ implications for planners.

Obamacare and Medical Meetings

W PCMA.ORG

hen the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on June 28, it cleared the way for the full implementation of the landmark health-care legislation. While the main thrust of PPACA is to extend health insurance to the U.S. population, it also has direct implications for medical meetings and exhibitions — including a “Sunshine” provision that requires pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers to report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services any “transfers of value” to physicians and other “covered recipients.” Meeting planners likely will be put in the position of helping their exhibitors fulfill that requirement by

+ ON THE WEB To read an article

on what medical associations should know about collecting physician attendees’ NPI numbers, written by HCEA Director of Content and Education Jennifer Palcher- Silliman, visit convn. org/hcea-npi.

› AUGUST 2012 PCMA CONVENE 17

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLY FRANKLIN