(upbeat music)
- [Presenter] The Open Payments program
within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
provides transparency into financial relationships
between pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers,
and teaching hospitals, physicians, physician assistants,
and advanced practice nurses.
The program collects data from drug
and medical device companies about payments they make
to healthcare providers
and makes it available to the public
to shed light on payments and other transfers of value
that take place each year.
CMS data for all program years, dating back to 2013,
includes $53.06 billion in payments,
76.25 million total records,
more than 2000 reporting entities,
1.08 million physicians,
and 1,300 teaching hospitals.
The data shown is up-to-date for program years
2013 through 2019 as of June 30th, 2020.
Reporting entities are pharmaceutical companies,
device manufacturers,
and group purchasing organizations, known as GPOs,
that operate in the United States
and produce or distribute covered drugs,
devices, biological, or medical supplies.
During the first eight years of the Open Payments program,
covered recipients included only physicians
and teaching hospitals.
In 2021, the reporting entities must begin data collection
on five additional categories
of healthcare providers, which are:
physician assistants,
nurse practitioners,
clinical nurse specialists,
certified registered nurse anesthetists
and anesthesiologist assistants,
and certified nurse midwives.
Data from reporting entities includes,
but is not limited to:
general payments such as: consulting and speaking fees,
honoraria, gifts, and royalties,
grants and research charitable contributions,
entertainment, travel, lodging, food, and beverage,
medical education programs,
and space rental or facility fees.
Research payments and ownership
or investment interests
involving covered recipient physicians
or their immediate family members must also be reported.
New categories of reportable payments added in 2021 include:
debt forgiveness, long-term medical supply or device loans,
and acquisitions.
The Open Payments program operates on a yearly cycle
consisting of four key activities:
Data Collection, Data Submission,
Review and Dispute, and Data Publication.
Reporting entities are required to collect payment data
on an ongoing basis.
In February and March, reporting entities submit to CMS
detailed information about payments or transfers of value
that they made to covered recipients
in the previous calendar year.
At the end of the data submission period,
there is a voluntary review and dispute period
to help ensure that validity of the data.
At this point, covered recipients can go online
to view the data attributed to them
and dispute any inaccuracies before the data is public.
Covered recipients work directly with the reporting entity
to reach a dispute resolution.
Reporting entities can make corrections
to the data as necessary depending on the outcome
of the dispute.
The fourth and final step is the annual data publication.
CMS publishes the data by June 30th each year.
As you've just learned, the Open Payments program
operates on an annual cycle.
There are several key dates in this cycle to remember.
While companies collect data all year long,
they submit the data they collected in the previous year
from February 1st to March 31st.
After that, covered recipients have from April 1st
to May 15th to review and dispute this data.
Any corrections to the data must be made
by reporting entities by May 30th.
By June 30th, CMS publishes the data on its public website.
Open Payments data has been used in hundreds
of healthcare industry and mainstream media articles.
This publicly available data includes millions of records
representing billions of dollars
in payments across all program years.
CMS has indexed the Open Payments data
so that it is easy for anyone to conduct searches
by physician, teaching hospital, or company,
as well as by medical specialty and other parameters.
Let's look at how to use the Open Payments search tool
to conduct a basic search.
Please note that all names and identifying information shown
in the following demo are for illustration purposes only.
Any resemblance to actual persons or entities
is purely coincidental.
You can begin a search
right from the Open Payments search tool homepage
at OpenPaymentsData.CMS.gov.
Simply type in the name of the physician, teaching hospital,
or company you are interested in researching.
The results delivered from this basic search,
will include any records that have at least part of the name
or entity for which you are searching.
Once you click on your choice,
you'll be brought to the profile page
for that person or entity.
This page provides a dashboard-style view
of all relevant data.
You can filter data by year, payment type,
and other criteria.
Data can be viewed in table or chart format.
In addition, you can see how data compares
to the national and specialty averages of payments made.
There are also options for advanced search
and data downloads.
It's important to note that all data provided
by reporting entities is published
exactly as it is attested.
CMS does not alter the data in any way.
The Open Payments program is a culmination of years
of dedicated efforts to promote
a more financially transparent
and accountable healthcare system.
Your participation in Open Payments, now or in the future,
depending on your role, ensures your data is accurate
and promotes healthcare transparency.
Learn more about the Open Payments program
at cms.gov/openpayments.
Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services.