Grassley stirs up CMS pot, presses for Sunshine Act

U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)

Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Herb Kohl, D-Wis., authors of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, have outlined substantive points to guide federal implementation of the act. Grassley and Kohl wrote to the Acting Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner with their points and also asked questions about when CMS will begin data collection.

The senators developed the act after revelations of significant under-reporting of the amount of payments received by certain doctors from drug and device companies. The new legislation, signed into law in 2010, requires public disclosure of the financial relationships between physicians and the pharmaceutical, medical device and biologics industries. The law required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish reporting procedures for applicable manufacturers to submit information, as well as procedures for making that information available to the public by Oct. 1, 2011.

The senators commented to CMS on the timeliness of implementation, the accuracy of the data, the categories of providers to include in the disclosure and useful context for the data.  

“We are disappointed that regulations implementing the Sunshine Act were not complete by the statutory deadline of Oct. 1, 2011,” the senators wrote. “We request that the final rule on implementation be released no later than June of this year so that partial data collection for 2012 can commence.”

Kohl said, “Sunshine laws are only effective when accurate information is in the hands of consumers. We’ll continue to monitor the progress of building a useful database so that consumers are fully served with knowledge about financial relationships that could affect their healthcare.”

Grassley and Kohl posed questions regarding implementation, including:

• Can CMS commit to completing a final rule by this summer so that data collection can begin in 2012?
• Since CMS missed the initial required Congressional deadline, has CMS increased the resources or personnel assigned to the implementation of the Sunshine Act, including a dedicated IT lead?
• Has CMS allocated dedicated implementation funds for the Physicians Payment Sunshine Act?

“We respectfully request that you respond to our offices by no later than close of business on April 18,” the letter concluded.