The American Medical Association and American Dental Association are among some of the more secretive medical nonprofits when it comes to disclosing ties to drug and device companies, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Health-related nonprofits that advise consumers and medical professionals pocket more than $100 million a year from drug, medical device and insurance companies.
Some are more transparent about their corporate ties than others. For example, each quarter the National Alliance for Mental Illness posts the names of all corporations and foundations that gave the charity more than $5,000, how much they contributed, and how the money was spent, the Chronicle reports. In Q2 2010, McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals donated $60,000 to the group's quarterly magazine.
But many of the 33 leading health groups that Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has approached for information on drug and device industry ties have been less forthcoming. His investigators ask how much each company gave to the nonprofit groups and their directors, and what the money bought.
The Chronicle followed up with a request of its own to the same nonprofits, asking them to reveal what they told the senator. Not all of them complied.
Group that gave the Chronicle information about their revenue from medical companies, but not a list of payments, included the American Cancer Society--which received $10 million in 2009--and the American College of Surgeons--which declined to disclose how much money it gets from medical companies, but posts corporate contributers to its foundation and general giving levels on its website.
Groups that were more secretive, revealing little to nothing to the Chronicle about their responses to Grassley, included the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.
To learn more:
- read these articles from the Chronicle of Philanthropy: article 1, article 2, article 3 and article 4
- see the New York Times story