A US Senate committee is probing an American Medical Association program that allows docs to opt-out of having their prescribing data sold to drugmakers. Known as the Physician Data Restriction Program, the effort is controversial because the AMA has a financial stake and has also been criticized for not establishing a program that encourages docs to participate, rather than have to opt out.

And so Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the Special Committee on Aging, and Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, sent a letter to AMA president Ron Davis asking for info on how the program conducts outreach, protects patient privacy and responds to complaints about drugmakers, along with other details.

“To say the least, we are troubled by any attempt to persuade physicians to prescribe a drug for any reason other than the patient’s condition and the drug’s effectiveness in treating it. Without question, it is very important for physicians to be able to protect the privacy of their prescriber numbers and prescribing patterns,” the letter states.

Kohl and Durbin plan to introduce a bill this spring to create a federal academic detailing program, which would provide docs and other prescribers with an “objective source of unbiased information on all prescription drugs, based on sound scientific research.”

The proposed legislation would create a grant program to fund production of educational materials on safety, effectiveness, and cost of meds, including generics and OTC drugs. The policy would also create a second grant program to send trained medical professionals (such as pharmacists and nurses) to doctors’ offices to distribute independently researched info. They expect the program to pay for itself by lowering government healthcare costs.

Last June, Kohl held a hearing examining the relationships between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry. Following the hearing, Chairman Kohl and Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (S.2029) to require manufacturers of pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices, and biologics to disclose the amount of money they give to doctors through payments, gifts, honoraria, travel and other means. The drug industry has challenged the Grassley-Kohl bill, claiming that the legislation will potentially restrict their ability to inform doctors about new drugs. The academic detailing legislation under consideration by Kohl and Durbin addresses this charge.