Spread the word: As of February 18th, biopharmaceutical/medical technology organizations and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) can now register and set up their accounts with the Open Payments/Sunshine online database. Biopharmaceutical/medical technology companies are required to register with the database.
Registration and data submission will have two phases:
Phase 1: This phase will run February 18th to March 31st. During this time, organizations and GPOs will register with the CMS Enterprise Portal (this will register users with the larger CMS’ Enterprise Identity Management system) and submit their corporate profile information. They will also be required to submit their aggregate 2013 program data.
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Phase 2: This phase will begin in May and run for no fewer than 30 days. During this time, organizations and GPOs will register with the Sunshine-specific Open Payments system, submit their detailed 2013 payment data and submit a legal attestation to the accuracy of the data.
Previously, CMS announced that registration would open at the same time for physicians and teaching hospitals; however, according to the latest round of news, this will not come until much later in 2014. Partners for Healthy Dialogues feels that this compressed and shortened registration timeline for physicians is detrimental to physicians understanding of the Sunshine program. It is important for physicians to register because if they don’t, they won’t be able to review data reported about them or dispute anything before it is available to the public. This announcement from CMS means that physicians will likely only have a few months to register, since the data will be released to the public and media by September 30, 2014. As discussed in an article from The Pink Sheet (available here for subscribers), this is just the latest delay of the Sunshine Act and the timeline for physicians to register and review data reported on them continues to shrink. We will be sure to keep you informed as CMS releases more information on registering for physicians.
