ASP Educational Grants and Goodwill

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why is the grant information being disclosed?

ASP is proud to have the privilege of providing educational grants to support independent educational activities, which are intended to contribute to better patient care. We believe that being transparent with this information is the appropriate action to demonstrate our commitment to providing the highest quality health care products and services, including support for medical education.

2. What grant information is being disclosed?

Beginning in the first quarter of 2009, ASP is providing the:

• Name, city and state of the accrediting organization
• Co-sponsor to whom the funds were paid, if applicable, and their city and state
• Title of the educational activity
• Amount of the payment
• Date the educational activity will be initiated

3. What types of grants does ASP support?

• Accredited Continuing Education: Educational programs for health care providers such as physicians, nurses, and/or pharmacists that provide continuing education credits.
• Non-Accredited Professional Educational Activities: Educational programs for health care providers such as physicians, nurses, and pharmacists that do not provide continuing education credits. As a condition for funding, to the extent ASP products are discussed as part of such funded activities, ASP requires that such discussion be done in a manner consistent with the FDA approved labeling.
• Fellowships: Support for bona fide fellowship programs at teaching institutions, medical societies and cooperative groups. We may also support travel scholarships for fellows, residents or health care providers in training to attend relevant major medical or scientific conferences for the purpose of education. All support is in agreement with the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs Gifts to Physicians from Industry.

4. Who is the "grant requestor(s)"?

This is the organization requesting the independent educational grant from ASP and is typically an accredited/educational provider or similar organization responsible for designing and conducting an educational activity. The accredited/educational provider is the organization that signs the letter of agreement/contract with ASP and has ownership of the educational activity, controlling all aspects of the activity/program. Individual health care professionals or private health care professional practices are not eligible to receive grant funding.

5. Who decides the name/title of an educational activity?

The grant requestor and/or accredited continuing education provider is in complete control of all aspects of their educational activity including the title, scope of activity, faculty and audience selection, content, distribution and evaluation of the program. For posting purposes, the title of the education activity is obtained from the information provided with the grant submission.

6. What is a co-sponsor?

To be consistent with accepted industry standards (Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, American Nurses Credentialing Center, and American College of Physician Executives), a continuing education provider may specify a co-sponsor in the letter of agreement. This does not include organizations retained by the provider in a subcontracting relationship that supply administrative or logistical services.

7. How is the total amount of the grant determined and distributed?

The total amount approved for funding is based on the grant request and the grant committee's funding decision. This may be full or partial funding and can be of an equal or lesser amount than requested in the grant application. This amount is specified in the letter of agreement/contract.

The disclosure report posted by ASP is limited to the funding we provided and does not include or address funding secured by the grant requesting organization from sources other than ASP. The accredited/educational provider has complete control over the distribution of funds received from ASP and the choice of co-sponsor(s).

8. What should one be aware of to further understand how the funding amount is being disclosed?

Every grant request received undergoes a thorough review, which follows a well-defined process to ensure that appropriate funding is made according to accepted standards (i.e., U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, Office of Inspector General, AdvaMed, and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) and company policies. A grant can only be approved for funding after it has undergone a rigorous review. The funding amount may be divided into partial payments that are stated in the letter of agreement/contract between the accredited/educational provider and ASP.

To ensure accurate reporting of funds disbursed, ASP is disclosing all payments to an accredited/educational provider within a defined fiscal quarter. These financial disclosures may not include grants made by companies recently acquired by ASP prior to the acquisition. Available records from such companies will be reviewed and evaluated, and applicable grant information will be posted within a reasonable period following acquisition.

9. What types of information are not reflected by the funding amounts we have disclosed?

The payment information posted on this site does not itemize the amount of funds the grant requestor may pay to third parties as "pass-through" expenses associated with building health care provider awareness of the educational activity and conducting the event. Typical pass-through expenses may include: fees (e.g., accreditation/certification, fees CE certificates, sub-contractors, medical societies, etc.), administrative costs (e.g., printing, postage, etc.), logistical support (e.g., room rental, audiovisual equipment rental, etc.), faculty honorarium and travel expenses, and other expenses.

10. Why might some funds appear to have been reported for the same amount across multiple quarters?

All reporting is based on actual payments made, not on total dollar amounts approved for each grant request. There may be certain situations where grant requests are approved with installment payments of equal or similar value spread over time. Usually these will occur when more complicated educational activities with multiple components are approved. Payments are disbursed upon completion of project milestones that demonstrate the activity is proceeding as originally proposed, as defined by the accredited provider/educational sponsor.

11. Are the volume of requests and the number of approvals generally consistent over the course of a calendar year?

The number of grant requests ASP receives varies throughout the year. The quantity, timing, and nature of requests are determined by the needs of accredited providers/educational sponsors submitting proposals to ASP. In addition, changes in the availability of ASP funds affect the volume and dollars available for grants.

12.What is the difference between a charitable contribution and an educational grant?

Educational grants are provided for bona fide educational activities and fall into one of the following categories:

• Accredited Continuing Education: Educational programs for health care providers such as physicians, nurses, and/or pharmacists that provide continuing education credits.
• Non-Accredited Professional Educational Activities: Educational programs for health care providers such as physicians, nurses, and pharmacists that do not provide continuing education credits. As a condition for funding, to the extent ASP products are discussed as part of such funded activities, ASP requires that such discussion be done in a manner consistent with the FDA approved labeling.
• Fellowships: Support for bona fide fellowship programs at teaching institutions, medical societies and cooperative groups. We may also support travel scholarships for fellows, residents or health care providers in training to attend relevant major medical or scientific conferences for the purpose of education. All support is in agreement with the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs Gifts to Physicians from Industry.

Charitable contributions describe donation requests that are used for purposes other than health care professional education initiatives. Charitable contributions may be cash or product donations.

• A cash charitable contribution is a financial donation that is philanthropic in nature and provided to a nonprofit organization to support a specific community-based (or regional/national) program, project, or event (e.g., a cash donation at a fund raising event).
• A product donation is provided through specific product giving programs to non-government organizations generally responding to disasters, medical relief efforts and basic health care needs in under-served communities.

13.How are programs that are jointly supported by ASP and another business reported?

As each business is a separate legal entity, the individual company that signs the letter of agreement and provides the funds directly to the requesting organization reports programs.

14. How is the reporting period for funding determined?

All reported funding is based on ASP's financial calendar. In general, grants are reported based on financial quarters, which are 13 weeks in length. Although they closely resemble calendar quarters, there may be occasions where the fiscal quarter does not end on the last day of the calendar month. If the financial calendar ends earlier than the end of the month, any activity from the next day forward would be reported with the next quarterly reporting period.

15.Why might one see duplicate payments reported in different quarters on this website?

Rarely, there may be a duplicated payment reported in a different time period if the requesting organization reports a lost check.

16.What happens when the grant recipient does not require, or use, all of the funds originally specified for an activity?

An educational provider/sponsor may reconcile their budget following an activity and find that they have unused funds remaining. As established in the written agreement and in accordance with our policy, ASP requires that unused funds already disbursed to the educational provider/sponsor be returned to our organization. ASP is also reporting any unused funds received from an accredited provider/educational sponsor as a lump sum in the quarter they are returned.

For the purposes of accuracy, ASP is reporting the actual funds disbursed to a grant applicant and, if applicable, the educational partners as specified in the written agreement. Should the educational activity not require all of the funds originally specified in the agreement, unused funds would not be disbursed.