Physicians have the right to review reports about them and challenge items they believe are false, inaccurate or misleading in the database, but they must now do so by Sept. 10.
September 5, 2014
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have pushed back the deadline for disputing errors on its open payments database.
The new deadline is Sept. 10.
By then, physicians who received payments or gifts from pharmaceutical or medical-device companies in 2013 should have reviewed and, if necessary, initiated a dispute about what’s been reported in order to have erroneous information flagged in the database by the time it goes public on Sept. 30.
After Sept. 10, physicians can still initiate disputes on 2013 data until Dec. 31, but the disputed information will not be flagged in the database until 2015.
The open payments database was initiated through the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which requires manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and biological substances to report certain payments and items to physicians and teaching hospitals every year. This includes any item valued over $10, including consulting fees; honoraria; gifts; compensation for food, travel, education and conferences; research funding; stock or stock options; investment income; and royalty and license payments. The database will also list research payments made to Stanford University under the principal investigator’s name.
Following are three useful web pages for learning about the database and how to get access to it:
About Stanford Medicine
Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu.
