The government of Ontario is consulting with patients, health care providers and the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries with the goal of increasing openness and transparency for Ontario residents on their health care.
Discussions have begun about current regulations and guidelines that govern the disclosure of payments from the private sector to health care professionals.
The goal of these discussions is to assess what additional measures are needed to increase transparency in health care, including, for example, publicly disclosing payments by private drug companies to health care providers.
Currently, there are restrictions on the types of benefits that can be received by health care providers, hospitals and researchers from the for-profit industry, but disclosure is not always mandatory.