Physician Payments Sunshine Act: CMS Announces Sunshine Webinars for Healthcare Providers

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will be conducting a series of Open Payments webinars directed at “association/medical society staff, physicians, practitioners, and practice managers.”

Applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are required to submit Phase I reports in just a few day—by March 31, 2014. We have noted in our coverage of the Sunshine Act that CMS has not provided much information to covered recipients, despite their integral role in the reporting process. For example, in CMS’ announcement for Phase I and Phase II, their website stated that: “No action is needed from affected physicians and teaching hospitals at this time. CMS will soon issue more specific information regarding the dates for Phase 2 registration and data submission, as well as when registration and review/correction will open for affected physicians and teaching hospitals, which will be no later than August 1, 2014.”

Hopefully this webinar provides useful information for physicians looking to register with Open Payments, sift through the data, dispute any transactions, and then come to a resolution with their manufacturer-partners.

CMS notes that the webinar “will provide an overview of the final rule, information on your role in the program, resources available to you as a health care provider, and key program dates.  The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session with staff from the Center for Program Integrity’s Data Sharing and Partnership Group.”

CMS has ten regional offices, and will provide the webinars in three groups:

• HCPs in CMS Regions 1, 2, 3, 4: Tuesday, April 15, 2014, 1:00 – 2:00 PM Eastern
• HCPs in CMS Regions 5, 6, 7, 8: Wednesday, April 16, 2014, 12:00 – 1:00 PM Central
• HCPs in CMS Regions 9 and 10: Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific

Click here for CMS’ announcement and links to the webinars.