Physician Payments Sunshine Act: Physicians Express Concerns over CMS Registration Timelines
Registration for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act Registration opened for companies on February 18th, 2014. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) took a surprising turn by instituting registration data submission in two phases. Notably, under the new timeline, CMS stated that affected healthcare professionals will be able to review and correct their data “no later than August 1, 2014.” Given CMS’ penchant for cutting it close to the deadlines, many physicians and teaching hospitals are concerned that the new Open Payments rollout will severely compress their timeline for reviewing spend data attributed to them about them.
As we stated in February, CMS decision to move to two phases will likely result in two public releases of data. The initial aggregate data, due by March 31, will likely be released on September 30, 2014. The second wave of information, due sometime in June or July, which will include the detailed, attested payment information, will likely be released to the public some time on or after January 31, 2015, six months after receipt of the data. This would give physicians the opportunity to register and the time to review the Sunshine data before the data is published.
Phase I and Phase II…but what about Physicians?
CMS’ website currently has information about the two phases of Open Payments registration and submission.
Phase 1 will run February 18th to March 31st. During this time, organizations will register with the CMS Enterprise Portal and submit their corporate profile information. Companies must also submit their aggregate 2013 program data.
Phase 2 “begins in May and run for no fewer than 30 days.” During this time, organizations will register with the Sunshine-specific Open Payments system, submit their detailed 2013 payment data and submit a legal attestation to the accuracy of the data.
CMS states that they “will post payments or other transfers of value and ownership or investment interest reports on a public website for the Initial implementation year (partial reporting year) no later than September 30, 2014.
According to CMS, “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.”
Clearly, an eight week window is very rushed for all affected physicians to have time to register, sift through the data, dispute any transactions, and then come to a resolution with their manufacturers.
During their November webinar on Open Payments last year, CMS provided this timeline:
As the revised timeline stands now, however, physicians will have almost no time to register before the data is released to the public and media by September 30. CMS likely will hold true to the September 30 deadline for the aggregate data. However, the specific data with physician information and identifiable data will likely be released a few months later. CMS provides a 45 day window for the review, dispute, and correction process.
Partners for Healthy Dialogues weighed in on the small window of time for physicians to be involved and take action. “We want to encourage a proactive, positive conversation about how collaboration between health care professionals and biopharmaceutical professionals improves patient care and drives medical innovation,” said Partners for Healthy Dialogues spokesperson, Eric Hoffman. “Now that the public will have access to data on the financial relationships between physicians and biopharmaceutical professionals, we hope that it will lead to a more productive dialogue about the importance of these collaborations, while also ensuring proper context is given for the data.”
CMS projects that Open Payments system will open for 2013 detailed data submission (Phase II) in May. We will continue to post any Sunshine Act news.
.