Physician Payments Sunshine Act: CMS Removes CME Language from the Final Rule and Effectively Incorporates the Accredited CME Exemption Into Its Other Definitions

  On Halloween evening, October 31st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued their final physician payment fee schedule for 2015, which included their changes to the Final Rule implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.   The agency’s brief announcement following the changes stated that the revisions included “Deletion of the Continuing Education Exclusion in its entirety.” While this is technically true, CMS effectively expanded the CME exemption by stating that they would not consider any CME-related payments to be reportable so long as the commercial supporter “does not require, instruct, direct, or otherwise cause the continuing education event provider to provide the payment … to a covered recipient." The CME Coalition, which represents many CME provider companies and supporters, applauded the new rule as “a big win for CME, and for patients.” They note that “[a]s a practical matter, because the standards for commercial support inherent in most accredited CME already prohibit commercial supporters from paying speakers directly, suggesting speakers (e.g., providing a list), or otherwise controlling the nature or content of the educational program, there will not be any necessity to report CME payments under the Sunshine Act for most accredited CME programs. Therefore the CME Coalition applauds CMS for clarifying these important rules in such a manner.”  CM...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs