Physician Payments Sunshine Act: CMS Open Payments Teleconference to Explain Phase I Registration and Aggregate Data Submission

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will conduct a webinar to explain requirements for Open Payments, the implementation program for the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, Phase 1 registration and data submission.

Webinar date and time: Tuesday, February 25, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. (EST)

Target audience: The content of this webinar will primarily impact applicable manufacturers and applicable GPOs. Their authorized official (the entity’s executive-level officer who can legally represent the organization), or their authorized representative, is also impacted, because these individuals need to register in CMS’ Enterprise Portal and the Open Payments system.The authorized official or authorized representative who will complete Phase 1 data submission should also attend this call. Other interested participants, such as covered recipients (affected physicians and teaching hospital representatives), are also welcome to attend, but are not required to take any action at this time.

Registration link: Click here to register, enter your name and email address into the box titled “Complete this form to enter the webcast.” You should receive a confirmation email letting you know you successfully registered.

Open Payments registration and data submission for applicable manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations (GPOs) opened today (Feb 18) with a two-phased approach for this first reporting year of this new program:

• Phase 1 (starting today through March 31) includes user registration in CMS’ Enterprise Portal and submission of corporate profile information and aggregate 2013 payment data.
• Phase 2 (begins in May and extends for no fewer than 30 days) includes industry registration in the Open Payments system, submission of detailed 2013 payment data, and legal attestation to the accuracy of the data.

CMS believes that this approach helps to ensure the accuracy of the data collected, and provides the time stakeholders need to make their submissions, particularly those with large data files.

For those requiring additional guidance, CMS will release additional resources later this week, including FAQs and step-by-step instructions with screen shots.

Analysis

Hopefully, the teleconference will answer the significant questions many stakeholders have regarding aggregate reporting, and perhap will shed light on the actual deadline for Phase II.

We look forward to the step-by step-instructions with screen shots. These should have been released when the registration site opened. CMS requires significant personal information from executive level officers for the Enterprise portal, including date of birth, home address and social security number. We hope CMS has sufficient security protecting this sensitive data.