On March 28, Aladine Elsamadicy, MD, authored an article for the Neurosurgery Blog titled “Overview of the Open Payment Database: What do I need to know?” While physician-industry relationships are vital for innovation, concerns of potential conflict of interest have called into question the objectivity of scientific research and patient care. To help alleviate these concerns, the CMS opted to increase the transparency of physician-industry interactions. The Sunshine Act was passed in 2010 as part of the larger Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This mandates that all payments to physicians of greater than $10 from industry be reported to CMS for upload to the Open Payments Database.
Every year CMS opens a 45-day pre-publication review and dispute window, from April 1 through May 15, where the recipient can review reported payments from the previous calendar year and challenge any amount or type of payment with the reporting entity before it becomes public, allowing the reporting entity to correct the information before the data is public. We encourage neurosurgeons to check their data and report any discrepancies.
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