Articles

Legislation in the Washington State House could cripple survey, opinion and marketing research involving respondent incentives by creating the presumption that anyone receiving remuneration for services is an employee.

A coalition of research associations and professional societies today called upon the Obama Administration to defend the use of respondent incentives in federal surveys.

Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA-03) has introduced the Research Fairness Act (H.R. 5915) in the U.S. Congress to prevent marketing research participants from being treated as employees of research companies.

Recent wins for pharmaceutical marketing research in Maine and DC leave only West Virginia and Vermont as the jurisdictions currently restricting or prohibiting research with physicians and healthcare professionals.

MRA testified this morning on legislation in the Vermont legislature, S. 104, which would legalize research with physicians.

MRA convinced a state legislator to exempt respondent incentives for marketing research from his legislation, which would have banned most payments from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to health care professionals.

The new U.S. healthcare law signed by President Obama today includes the Physician Payments Sunshine Act – and an important win for the survey and opinion research profession. Thanks to lobbying by the Marketing Research Association (MRA) and targeted outreach by MRA grassroots volunteers, the Sunshine Act excludes incentive payments for doctors who participate in marketing research projects.

The Minnesota Board of Pharmacy has revised the language of an important Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) to ensure that payments to Minnesota health care practitioners for participation in bona fide market research are NOT prohibited or restricted.

The U.S. survey and research profession testified today before a joint hearing in the Minnesota House and Senate. The Marketing Research Association’s (MRA) Director of Government Affairs, Howard Fienberg, PLC, defended the use of physician incentives in pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing.

Today, the Marketing Research Association (MRA) announces victory in its lobbying and grassroots actions to protect research with health care practitioners in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Department of Health has issued official guidance exempting market research incentives from the application of the state’s new Marketing Code of Conduct for pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.