The Maine legislature passed with broad bipartisan approval L.D. 911, An Act to Prohibit Certain Gifts to Health Care Practitioners. The legislation prohibits gifts to practitioners who are licensed to prescribe and administer drugs by manufacturers, wholesalers, or agents of manufacturers or wholesalers of prescription drugs.

What’s Excluded?

• Free samples of prescription drugs for patients
• Items less than $50 over a calendar year
• Payments to sponsors of educational programs
• Honoraria for educational conferences
• Compensation for research
• Publications or educational materials
• Salaries to employees

At the Heart of the Bill is the State’s Opioid Crisis

While similar in substance to what already exists in Massachusetts, Vermont, and other states as a law designed to curtail conflicts of interest in physician prescribing practices, the purported impetus here is the state’s opioid crisis. Representative Scott Hamann, the sponsor for the bill, said that the goal is to ensure doctors do not have conflicts of interest when prescribing drugs, especially opioids. According to Hamann’s testimony before the legislature, “People are dying, and the addiction often starts in the doctor’s offices.” The bill intends to curb any influence on the prescribing of opioids given the perspective that there is a correlation between payments and prescribing behavior. Maine has seen a forty percent increase in drug overdose deaths in the last year, and spending on physicians nearly doubled from 2014 to 2015.

The “gift ban” law is now awaiting the Maine Governor’s signature. It will be interesting to see if other states impacted heavily by heroin and opioid abuse will follow suit with increased surveillance or banning of industry gifts to physicians.