Physician Payments Sunshine Act: Comments For and Against CMS Including Open Payments Data on "Physician Compare" Profiles

On July 15, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its proposed rule to update the Medicare physician fee schedule for 2016. Among the many proposals, CMS sought comment on whether to add Open Payments data to its “Physician Compare” website. The comment period closed last month; we have provided a list of comments listed by whether they were supportive or against the proposal.
Background
CMS launched the first phase of Physician Compare on December 30, 2010, and so far the website mainly contains physician identification information as well as whether they participate in various “Quality” programs, including the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), Electronic Prescribing (eRX) Incentive Programs, and Electronic Health Records. (You can search your doctor by name or specialty here). In its recently released Call for Comment (see page 123), CMS proposed to add additional data to each doctor’s Physician Compare page, including Open Payments data.
According to CMS, “[c]onsumer testing has indicated that [Open Payments] data are of great interest to consumers.” Open Payments is a searchable database that lists physicians next to the payments or transfers of value they receive from the pharmaceutical and device industry--such transactions may include meals, consulting arrangements, travel expenses, research payments, speaking fees, and a host of other industry interactions. �...

Source: Policy and Medicine - October 8, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Policy and Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs