Physician Complaint Shuts Down CMS Open Payment Site

A complaint from a physician about inaccurate payment information reported by device makers shut down the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) Open Payment System temporarily in early August.

The Open Payments System website is where healthcare manufacturers report payments to physicians. The system was taken offline on August 3 to resolve a technical issue. A full investigation into a physician complaint found that manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) submitted intermingled data, such as the wrong state license number or national provider identifier (NPI), for physicians with the same last and first names. This erroneously linked physician data in the Open Payments system.

Review Time Extended

So CMS extended the time for physicians to register, review and, as needed, dispute financial payment information received from device makers.

CMS announced on August 15, 2014 that it was extending the time for physicians and teaching hospitals to review their Open Payment System records to September 8, 2014. The public will have access to the data on September 30, 2014.

The agency says it has implemented system fixes to resolve the issue, and revalidated all data in the system to verify that the physician identifiers used by the applicable manufacturer or GPO are accurate, and that all payment records are attributed to a single physician. Incorrect payment transactions have been removed from the current review and dispute process and this data will not be published.

“CMS takes data integrity very seriously and took swift action after a physician reported a problem, ” said CMS Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Program Integrity Shantanu Agrawal, M.D. “We have identified the root cause of the problem and have instituted a system fix to prevent similar errors. We strongly encourage physicians to review their records before the deadline and before the data are posted publically to identify any discrepancies.”

Check Your Data!

If you have any concerns about the data’s accuracy, this is the time to dispute and correct the data submitted by industry. Physicians and teaching hospitals can register in Open Payments to review their payments.

For tutorials, information and a quick reference guide, visit: http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/National-Physician-Payment-Transparency-Program/Physicians.html.