CMS’ release of Open Payments data opens window to financial relationships
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled its first round of Open Payments data, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the financial relationships between healthcare industry, doctors and teaching hospitals.
Created by the Affordable Care Act, the Open Payments program discloses consulting fees, research grants, travel reimbursements and other gifts the healthcare industry, including medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies, have provided to physicians and teaching hospitals during the last five months of 2013.
The program reveals 4.4 million payments valued at nearly $3.5 billion attributable to 546,000 individual physicians and almost 1,360 teaching hospitals. The agency expects to release reports annually—and these will include a full year’s worth of payment data, beginning in June 2015.
Due to reported issues of inaccuracy, such as payment records with inconsistent physician information, about 40 percent of the records are deidentified. CMS plans to fully identify all the data in 2015, after entities submit corrected data, and physicians have the chance to review and dispute. All pending cases after Sept. 11 will appear in the following year’s data release, according to CMS.
“CMS is committed to transparency and this is an opportunity for the public to learn about the relationships among healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical and device companies,” CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said in a statement. “This initial public posting of data is only the first phase of the Open Payments program. In coming weeks, we will be adding additional data and tools that will give consumers, researchers and others a detailed look into this industry and its financial arrangements.”
The agency said it plans to work with stakeholders to provide context to these relationships, which it said are not necessarily harmful. “[W]hile these data could discourage payments and others transfers of value that might have an inappropriate influence on research, education and clinical decision-making, they could also help identify relationships that lead to the development of beneficial new technologies,” said Shantanu Agrawal, MD, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Program Integrity at CMS.
Access the database here.