Dive Brief:
- The first set of numbers from the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, scheduled for release Sept. 30, will be missing one-third of its data because of flaws discovered in the system by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
- CMS found that data was being "intermingled"—payments from pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers were being attributed to the wrong medical license or identification numbers. The first data comes from payments made Aug. 1 to Dec. 32, 2013.
- The withheld third of the records will not be posted until June 2015. CMS has stated publicly that they found the problem and will remove incorrect data from the system.
Dive Insight:
Physicians have until Sept. 8 to review their data for accuracy. According to ProPublica, some doctors who checked their information said there are still problems.
After discovering some of the data was incorrect two weeks ago, CMS took it offline. Since it has been put back online, some doctors are reporting that information that was correct information has been excluded as well. CMS claims to have fixed the problem, but, at least for the near future, it will be the job of physicians to monitor the information and ensure their numbers are correct.
Want to read more? You may enjoy this updated story about CMS' temporary shut-down of the glitched Open Payments system.