Practice Management

The Sunshine Act: CMS Posts 2017 Financial Data

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has made available the Open Payments Program Year 2017 data, along with newly submitted and updated payment records for previous program years.  The data is accessible here.

Open Payments is a national disclosure program that promotes transparency and accountability by making information about the financial relationships between applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and physicians and teaching hospitals available to the public. Through this program, health care consumers have access to a more transparent healthcare system. 

In Program Year 2017, applicable manufacturers and GPOs reported $8.40 billion in payments and ownership and investment interests to physicians and teaching hospitals. This amount is comprised of 11.54 million total records attributable to 628,214 physicians and 1,158 teaching hospitals. 

Payments are reported in three payment categories: general payments, research payments, and ownership or investment interests. Payments in the three major reporting categories for Program Year 2017 are:

• $2.82 billion in general (i.e., non-research related) payments
• $4.66 billion in research payments
• $927 million of ownership or investment interests held by physicians or their immediate family members

Over the course of the Open Payments program, CMS has published 53 million records, accounting for $33.42 billion in payments and ownership and investment interests. For more information, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/openPayments/