We have written many times about the Open Payments program, and now, in 2021, five new types of healthcare providers will be added to these transparency requirements: physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologist assistants, and certified nurse midwives.
Under the Open Payments program, payments and other transfers of value from drug and medical device companies to certain individual health care practitioners and teaching hospitals are tracked. The payments and transfers of value can be for a variety of things, such as research, meals, travel, gifts, speaking fees, and more.
Currently, Open Payments data includes information about more than 1 million physicians and 1,300 teaching hospitals. Open Payments data includes more than $53 billion in payments and encompasses more than 2,500 reporting entities (including pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, and group purchasing organizations).
Open Payments Calendar
All year long, companies collect the data and then between February 1st and March 31st of each year, they submit the data that was collected in the previous year. Then, from April 1st to May 15th, health care providers and teaching hospitals have the opportunity to review and dispute the reported data. At that same time, going until May 30th, companies have the ability to review and correct the reported data. Then, by June 30th, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) publishes the data.
Registration in the system and review of data by health care providers are voluntary activities, but are highly encouraged by CMS to ensure the database is an accurate and useful took for patients and others.
New Materials
To help the five new types of health care practitioners now subject to the Open Payments program, CMS has developed a series of new materials. The materials help bring awareness to the new practitioners that their data will be collected in 2021 and be made publicly available in 2022. New practitioners can also visit the Open Payments website here for more information.