Sunshine Reporting Registration to Open February 18

By Jennifer D. Newberger & Alan M. Kirschenbaum –

Last Friday, CMS issued a notice announcing the opening of registration for electronic Open Payments reporting under the physician payment sunshine provisions of the Affordable Care Act.  (A previous post on the sunshine provisions and our memo summarizing CMS’s final implementing rule can be found here.)  According to the final rule, issued almost one year ago, applicable manufacturers and GPOs must complete their reports by March 31, 2014 for payments and transfers of value made during the August 31-December 31, 2013 timeframe.  However, in today’s notice, CMS indicates that the reporting will occur in two phases, the second of which will not be completed until June or later.

The CMS notice states that its registration portal will be available beginning February 18.  During the first phase, from February 18 to March 31, users are to register and submit corporate profile information and “aggregate 2013 payment data.”  The second phase, beginning in May and extending for no fewer than 30 days, will include the completion of registration, “submission of detailed 2013 payment data,” and attestation to the accuracy of the data. 

Prior to this notice, CMS had not indicated that Open Payments reporting would be a two-phased process, nor that reporting of payments would be bifurcated into “aggregate payment information” followed by “detailed payment information.”    The notice does not explain what is to be included in the former.  Presumably, this question will be addressed in a webinar that CMS says will be announced next week, which will be “aimed at providing extensive discussion of the phased approach to Open Payments registration and data submission.”