Physician Payments Sunshine Act: One Month After the Data Release, What Are People Writing About Open Payments?

The Sunshine database was released one month ago, and it has been interesting to see the range of media coverage that has surrounded the release. On October 3, we looked at the first few days of Open Payments articles. These focused primarily on the deficiencies in the roll-out of the Open Payments System. Many early articles also highlighted the importance of context in looking at the database. Other journalists looked for evidence of wrongdoing in the database, but often noted that the system made proper analysis difficult. One month later, news outlets have had a better chance to analyze some of the numbers. While approximately 40-50% of the records are not connected to a specific doctor or teaching hospital, researchers (including Policy and Medicine) have analyzed certain breakdowns of the data that provide interesting information. In this article, we have provided a number of stories that run the gamut of coverage—some offer an objective breakdown of the payment data, some call out the highest paid doctors and hospitals, others point to the fact that Open Payments may chill important collaborations between industry and physicians. CMS Releases Search Tool: When Open Payments launched on September 30th, articles targeted the system’s lack of usability. “Another Government Website Rollout That Is Found Wanting,” wrote the New York Times. On October 17, CMS released a more patient-friendly search tool that allows users to enter the name of their physician an...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs