This Thursday November, 6th at 1:30pm in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC. MedPac will vote on their recommendations to Congress for financial disclosure of provider payments.
The proposal includes disclosure of payments totaling more than $100 in a year for all entities including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, it also applies to all payments to academic medical centers, professional medical associations, patient advocacy groups, and medical education companies. The recommendations applies to all pharmaceutical and device companies regardless of their revenue. The payments would be published on a public website, by an agency under HHS. They also are proposing that states should not be pre-empted from adopting stricter policies than those adopted by congress.
These recommendations are significantly more restrictive than the current language in the Physician Payment Sunshine Act.
The 17-member Medicare Payment Advisory Commission was created in 1997 to advise the U.S. Congress on issues affecting Medicare, including health care delivery, quality and access. Since Medicare does not have its own policy arm, the commission’s work is not only highly respected but has often served as a policy roadmap for recent Congresses around Medicare.