Dive Brief:
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Monday added 68,000 records to the Open Payment database, which records payments to physicians from medical device and drug makers.
- The new records cover about $200 million in payments and cover the final months of 2013.
- The payments were excluded from the initial data release either because they were still under dispute as of September 11 (about 9,000 records) or because they were submitted in July and were "inadvertently excluded."
Dive Insight:
The database now accounts for $2.7 billion in payments to half a million doctors and 1,360 teaching hospitals. In June, CMS will release the next round of data (including all 2014 payments) and update some 2013 records that have de-identified data.
The data covers research, consulting and promotional payments as well as any transaction valued at over $10, including gifts, travel and meals. Details are provided down to the travel destination, although identifying information has been removed in about 40% of the records because of unresolved questions.