The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 30 published its second Physician Payment Sunshine Act (also known as the Open Payments Program) report  detailing industry payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals in 2014. The report includes data on 11.4 million transfers of value to more than 600,000 physicians and over 1,100 teaching hospitals totaling $6.49 billion. According to CMS, 98.8 percent of the records were validated. Reports can be downloaded via the Open Payments website.

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, created by the Affordable Care Act, requires public reporting by manufacturers of medical products and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) of all payments or transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership or investment interests held by physicians or immediate family members of physicians in such manufacturers and GPOs. Data collection began on Aug. 1, 2013 and will be conducted annually going forward.

The ACC encourages physicians to review their reports when they are made available to ensure the data is accurate before the public release.

Clinical Topics: Cardiovascular Care Team

Keywords: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S., Group Purchasing, Hospitals, Teaching, Investments, Medicaid, Medicare, Ownership, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Physicians

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