OPEN PAYMENTS

The National Physician Payment Transparency Program (“OPEN PAYMENTS”, Section 6002 of the Affordable Care Act) creates greater transparency around the financial relationships of manufacturers, physicians, and teaching hospitals.

OPEN PAYMENTS requires that the following information is reported annually to CMS:

• Applicable manufacturers of covered drugs, devices, biologicals, and medical supplies to report payments or other transfers of value they make to physicians and teaching hospitals to CMS.
• Applicable manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to report to CMS certain ownership or investment interests held by physicians or their immediate family members.
• Applicable GPOs to report to CMS payments or other transfers of value made to physician owners or investors if they held ownership or an investment interest at any point during the reporting year.

CMS will collect this data, aggregate it, and publish it on a public website.

Why OPEN PAYMENTS Is Important

Collaboration among physicians, teaching hospitals, and industry manufacturers can contribute to the design and delivery of life-saving drugs and devices. However, while some collaboration is beneficial, payments from manufacturers to physicians and teaching hospitals can also introduce conflicts of interests.

While financial ties alone do not signify an inappropriate relationship, OPEN PAYMENTS is necessary to:

• Encourage transparency of reporting financial ties;
• Reveal the nature and extent of relationships;
• Prevent inappropriate influence on research, education, and clinical decision-making;
• Avoid conflicts of interest that can compromise clinical integrity and patient care; and
• Minimize risk of increased health care costs.

This program will be a national resource for beneficiaries, consumers, and providers to better understand relationships between physicians, teaching hospitals, and industry.

Your OPEN PAYMENTS Resource

CMS is committed to publishing the most accurate data possible, and supporting applicable manufacturers, applicable GPOs, and covered recipients for the OPEN PAYMENTS.

Follow this link to Explore the Data or to Download all Open Payments data in detail :

http://www.cms.gov/openpayments/index.html