Smart Talk: drug payments for docs, and more

What to look for on Smart Talk on Wednesday, October 8, 2014:

A new system related to health care is out from the federal government, and it’s getting poor reviews.

It’s called Open Payments.

Ideally, people would be able to see how much money doctors and health systems get from pharmaceutical companies.

But the data is incomplete, and the system is clunky to work with.

We’ll talk about it with Wall Street Journal reporter Ed Silverman and Tracy Koval with the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians and Foundation.

Then, the shortage of primary care providers in the state.

How bad is it, and what does the future look like?

We’ll hear from Judd Mellinger-Blouch, Director of the Pennsylvania Primary Care Career Center and Susan Schrand, Executive Director of the Pennsyvlania Coalition of Nurse Practicioners.