As part of the Open Payments program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will soon make data about the financial relationships between drug/device manufacturers and physicians and teaching hospitals available to the public. Physicians includes doctors of medicine and osteopathy, dental surgeons, dentists, licensed chiropractors, optometrists and podiatrists.
Open Payments registration for physicians and teaching hospitals in the CMS Enterprise Portal and the Open Payments system is currently open. Although registration is a voluntary process, it is required if physicians or teaching hospitals want to review any of the data reported about them, by the industry, prior to public posting of the data on September 30, 2014.
Registration and Data Review – Registration, review and data submission for physicians and teaching hospitals will be conducted in two phases for this first Open Payments reporting year:
Phase 1 includes user registration in the CMS Enterprise Portal to request access to the Open Payments system
Phase 2 includes physician and teaching hospital registration in the Open Payments system, and allows them to review and dispute data submitted by applicable manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations (GPOs) prior to public posting of the data.
Phase 1 & 2 registration is underway. Data review and submission, for the 2013 year, ends August 27, 2014.
Physicians can learn more about requirements, how to access and register in the Open Payments system, and get access to education materials and other resources on the Physicians web page of the Open Payments website. CMS has also developed a brochure about the program to be shared with patients.
An updated Open Payments Mobile for Physicians app is available to help physicians track payments and other transfers of value they receive from applicable manufacturers and applicable GPOs throughout the year. The app can be used by physicians and teaching hospitals. The app is voluntary, free for use, and can be downloaded at the Google Play app store or iOSApple app store. At either store, search for “Open Payments.”
