Psychiatry Fellow Offers Resolution on Sunshine Act Exemption

Simon Faynboym, M.D., a PGY-2 psychiatry resident at Indiana University School of Medicine and an APA delegate to the AMA's Resident and Fellow Section (RFS), testified today before the RFS on a resolution calling on the AMA to "clarify the status of fellows and prevent inappropriate or unanticipated reporting under the requirements" of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. The law was passed by Congress as part of the Affordable Care Act and seeks to enhance transparency of financial interactions between certain manufacturers and physicians and teaching hospitals. Residents are already exempted, but fellows are not, and the resolution—if accepted by the AMA House of Delegates this weekend at the AMA’s interim meeting—will add a powerful voice on behalf of America’s youngest physicians.  

Faynboym is one of the new, young faces of the AMA and an important member of psychiatry's delegation. The Section Council on Psychiatry, composed of representatives from APA, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, is one of the most successful in the House of Delegates; psychiatrists sit on many of the AMA’s decision-making councils. Additionally, there are more than 50 psychiatrists in the House of Delegates from around the nation. 

In an interview with Psychiatric News, Faynboym explained that many aspects of medical fellowship may be funded by industry and would subject fellows to reporting requirements that could be onerous; at the same time, the AMA’s own definition of “residency” includes physicians who are in fellowship programs. “If the AMA House supports this resolution, it would mean that the AMA could work with other organizations and the government to clarify the definition of a 'resident' under the law and the status of fellows,” he said.

For more on the sunshine act, click here.

 (Image: Mark Moran)