The Sunshine Act was passed as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (health care reform) in 2010, but CMS decided to delay data collection in connection with the act until 2013. The Act was designed to give transparency to the money and dealings between physicians, pharmaceutical companies, medical device and other medical supply manufacturers, as well as ownership or investment interests in group purchasing organizations. Physicians and manufacturers are to report (or disclose) any and all such incentives and payments they receive to CMS. Payments need to be reported by date and amount as well as list the nature of the payment or incentive (i.e. gifts, meals, speaking honoraria, etc).
The thought was that if these little promos, pluses, gifts, and payments were known, it would cut down on things like drugs being dispensed because doctors got good gifts and perks, rather than prescribing what would be best for their patients or possibly lying about results or usage for drug reporting purposes. That’s not giving doctors very much credit in my book.
Ok, transparency can be good, it can keep things honest, or it can just become a bureaucratic nightmare of expensive pointlessness. Now, doctors are supposed to report everything, right down to a box of doughnuts or a t-shirt that may have been given to them. That’s pretty petty. Now, I can see requiring the reporting of items over $1000 or $2500, but a box of doughnuts that the doctor may not have even shared in? The rule does seem to “give” a little. If notepads or pens were donated or given for a conference or something, those do not need to be reported. How generous*. It seems to have made an accounting nightmare for doctors and an accounting boon for accountants. One of the articles even talks quite passionately about how this is going to kill a lot of innovation, studies, and life-saving products.
Now for the even more annoying and scary part – Your information, dear doctor, is going public! While you are supposed to be living HIPAA true for your patients and having a security analysis for it, the government is about to expose your information for all to see, as part of the Sunshine Act transparency. The only thing they are “giving” to you for this measure is a small opportunity window to register, look at, and dispute any data you don’t like. You must REGISTER NOW, CHECK, MAKE ANY COMPLAINTS and have it done before August 27, 2014, because your personal information and data go live September 1st, 2014.
Now I’m not saying that no doctor or researcher may have ever possibly taken money for something that was not 100% perfectly perfect. What I am saying is if the government is really worried about corruption, transparency, and keeping things honest and above board, why don’t we have a Sunshine act for Congressmen, Senators, Judges, and other government officials? I’d even let them have a box of doughnuts and a t-shirt. Moreover, their information and money dealings should be public while they are public officials, because they are public officials. What about all of that special interest money and the tens of thousands of dollars that go into “campaign funds” and other things? Doctors are not public servants, nor do they have the clout or responsibility to the public individually, or even collectively, that public/government officials have. Transparency is one thing, HIPAA is one thing, why are doctors another?
What do you think about the Sunshine Act? Have you already registered and looked at your data? Was the information posted accurate? Did you have to dispute items? How did that go? DO YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH THE LEVEL OF PERSONAL DATA THAT IS GOING TO BE POSTED ABOUT YOU?
*I just found an article dated June 11, 2014 stating that some changes were made to the reporting limits. An exclusion has been given for educational materials such as text books and peer-reviewed journals, and the reporting limit has been raised from $10 to $100. (Sweet! Now you can have a doughnut and a latte!)
Additional articles used in gather info for this article (other than the links posted above):
- Physician Payments Sunshine Act: CMS Pushes Dispute Resolution to August/September; Still Plans to Post Public Database in September
- The Sunshine Act — Effects on Physicians
- Cegedim Sunshine Act Survey: 85% of Physicians Want to Review Data Before Companies Submit to CMS; Only 7% Have Visited Open Payments Website
- What the Sunshine Act Brings to Light
- Physician Payments Sunshine Act
***Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Genius Solutions, Inc., but of the News Editor, PR Henriksen.
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