The American Medical Association (AMA) is committed to transparency and supports the release of data that can help improve quality of care for patients, including information about physician's financial interactions with the industry which could help promote understanding and trust and strengthen the patient-physician relationship. For that reason, the AMA supported the Sunshine Act when it was passed by Congress. However, because of issues with the implementation of the law, the AMA believes that certain safeguards are needed to ensure the information is depicted correctly and in context to be useful for patients and fair to physicians. Thus, the AMA strongly encourages media to consider the following in their coverage to ensure data is indeed presented in an accurate and informative way to help patients understand and interpret the information correctly.

About the Open Payments Program

Under the Sunshine Act passed by Congress in 2010, industry is required annually to report financial interactions with individual physicians to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and this information is then to be made public. To implement the law, CMS developed the Open Payments program.
Are Open Payments Data Accurate?

Patients deserve to have access to accurate information. Publishing inaccurate data can lead to misinterpretations, harm reputations and cause patients to question their trust in their physicians. It can also unfairly impact physicians' ability to attain or keep research grants and other employment opportunities that require disclosure.

AMA has strongly urged the federal government to adopt sensible measures to ensure that the information released is accurate. Unfortunately, the CMS' Open Payments program has to date been plagued by significant shortcomings that call into question the accuracy of information published, including an overly complex registration process and inadequate opportunity for physicians to review their individual data.

Inadequate opportunity for physician review

For the estimated 200,000 physicians affected by the Sunshine Act, CMS provided a short, 45 day window to review and correct any inaccurate data. Unfortunately, several factors hindered participation by many of the physicians impacted including:

Inadequate notification to the physician community about key implementation deadlines for the program, including the beginning of the official 45-day registration and review period. CMS originally intended to open the registration process on January 1 of each year. It continues to miss this mark by several months and continues to provide inadequate notification to the physician community about key implementation deadlines for the program.

Association Viewpoints Homepage