With federal regulations implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act now 15 months overdue, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to the White House (PDF) Tuesday demanding prompt action on writing its final regulations. The law requires drug and device companies and other medical providers to disclose in a public database all payments to individual physicians for consulting and other services.

"Congress designed the law so that the data would be publicly available by Sept. 30, 2013," Grassley wrote to White House chief of staff Jacob Lew. "At best, the public may miss an entire year's worth of data collection -- perhaps more. This is unacceptable."

Grassley co-authored the bipartisan law with Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.)