Five Ways Congress Can Ensure Health Care Advisory Panels Serve the Public Interest

On Tuesday, POGO joined 19 other groups in a letter urging Congress to ensure transparency in the federal advisory committees that are likely to emerge from health care legislation. Both chambers have put forth health care proposals that would create these panels, which would advise the government on everything from immunization policy to health care finance.

In order to ensure that members on the federal advisory committees are serving the public's best interest, the groups recommend that the final health care bill include provisions to do the following:

• Require that all information about each advisory panel, including a full audio or video record of each panel meeting, is accessible via the Internet;
• Actively seek out advisory panel members without conflicts of interest;
• Assess financial conflicts of interest, and strive to name only non-conflicted experts to advisory committees;
• When conflicts are unavoidable, require that any waivers given to a conflicted advisory board member and the reasons for granting the waiver are part of the public record; and,
• Specifically require disclosure of the names and backgrounds of each member, and whether they are serving as experts or to represent particular constituencies.

You can read the letter in full here.

-- Bryan Rahija