The Sunshine Act: Putting It into Practice – Interview with Karen Lovitch, Member, Mintz Levin
Historically, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has not aggressively pursued enforcement activity under the Sunshine Act. However, this may change in 2024. Late last year, CMS updated its Open Payments...more
On June 30, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) released Open Payments data for the past year, 2020. This new data publication comes amid heightened government scrutiny of payments by drug and medical device...more
Device and drug manufacturers got a small surprise in the annual Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule (at 40,713-16) issued late in July by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) – among many other things, the...more
Drug and device manufacturers will need to update their reporting systems and provide new training to their sales staff in the coming years based on changes to the Physician Payment Sunshine Act included in the final opioid...more
Compliance officers often lament that it is impossible to identify, assess and manage the compliance risks of financial relationships they know nothing about. Too often they are limited to relationships brought to their...more
The Affordable Care Act added the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (Sunshine Act) as section 1128G to the Social Security Act. The Sunshine Act requires applicable manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals, or medical...more
On September 30, 2014, CMS published data regarding payments and transfers of value that pharmaceutical, biologic, and medical device manufacturers provided to U.S. physicians and teaching hospitals during the period August 1...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) publicly launched a database this week detailing the payments doctors and teaching hospitals have received from drug and medical device manufacturers. Under the Physician...more
September 30th marked the launch of transparency reports under the Sunshine Act through a new Open Payments website hosted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)....more
On August 7, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the Open Payments system is “temporarily” off-line. The CMS announcement did not state when the Open Payments system would be back on-line....more
Once again the Obama administration has been tripped up in launching a healthcare-related online system. This time the problem concerns the Physician Payments Sunshine Act—the act that is supposed to enable the public to see...more
In the July 3, 2014, issue of the Federal Register, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the proposed calendar year 2015 Medicare physician fee schedule update (the Proposed Rule). The Proposed Rule...more
Beginning Monday, July 14, 2014, the review, dispute and correction process outlined the National Physician Payment Transparency Program (also known as the "Sunshine Act") opens on CMS's Open Payments website. Physicians and...more
It’s a question CMS has been wrestling with since the enactment of the Sunshine Act (sometimes called the Open Payments Program) as part of the Affordable Care Act. The Sunshine Act generally requires a manufacturer to...more
CMS Seeks Additional Comments on Sunshine Rule Dispute Resolution and Correction Procedures – CMS is seeking additional comments on dispute resolution and correction procedures under the Sunshine Rule. According to the...more
On May 5, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") announced an opportunity to submit comments on the dispute resolution and correction procedures proposed in the final rule on the Open Payments reporting...more
The Physician Payment Sunshine Act is a minor part of the Affordable Care Act, but it could result in major headaches for physicians. The chief purpose of the Sunshine Act is to make any payments made by medical manufacturers...more
The Physician Payment Sunshine Act (the "Act") was enacted as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for the purpose of promoting transparency between the medical industry and health care providers. It...more
On January 17, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will release Medicare expenditure data on specific physicians under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This new “transparency”...more
Data collection requirements under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act commenced August 1, 2013. This provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the corresponding regulations require an entity that is...more
The final regulations implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act take effect April 9, 2013. Pharmaceutical manufacturers, group purchasing organizations, academic medical centers and physicians need to be ready to...more
Originally Published in BNA Bloomberg, Medical Devices Law & Industry Report on March 20, 2013. On February 1, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the long-awaited final regulations for...more
People like to think they have it the hardest in life. I call it the competition among victims. If you are in the healthcare industry and fall under the Physician Payments regulations, then I think you are on your way to...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the final regulations on the U.S. Sunshine Act on February 8, 2013. Transparency Reports and Reporting of Physician Ownership or Investment Interests, 78 Fed. Reg....more
In This Issue: - Interpretation and Clarification of Key Definitions ..Applicable Manufacturers ..Applicable GPOs ..Covered Drug, Device, Biological or Medical Supply ..Covered Recipients ...more