Physician Payments Sunshine Act: Year 2 of Data Submission Begins Today
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that beginning today, February 2, 2015, applicable manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations (GPOs) will be able to register or recertify their registration in the Open Payments system and begin data submission for any payments or transfers of value that occurred in the 2014 calendar year.
“All applicable manufacturers and GPOs must register or recertify their registration,” states CMS. “Applicable manufacturers and GPOs can also now submit corrected 2013 data (if needed) and submit their 2014 data to the Open Payments system.”
March 31, 2015, is the deadline for all submissions.
Physicians and teaching hospitals may also now register in the system so they can be prepared to review any data that may be submitted about them. The review and dispute period for physicians and teaching hospitals is anticipated to start in April.
“This constitutes the second year of Open Payments data submission, and supports CMS’ ongoing efforts to increase transparency and accountability in health care,” their announcement notes.
“CMS released the first year of Open Payments data on September 30, 2014, to help consumers understand the financial relationships between the health care industry, and physicians and teaching hospitals. This release was part of the Open Payments program, created by the Affordable Care Act, and lists consulting fees, research grants, travel reimbursements, and other gifts to the health care industry – such as medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies – provided to physicians and teaching hospitals during the last five months of calendar year 2013. The 2013 data contained 4.45 million payments valued at nearly $3.7 billion.”
CMS plans to publish the 2014 payment data and make any applicable updates to the 2013 data in June 2015.
More information about the Open Payments is available at: www.cms.gov/openpayments.
View CMS’s most recent timeline and announcement on technical updates to the Open Payments system here.