Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Plus: Look at the new reporting option for kickback self-disclosure.

It’s that time of year again — CMS updated on its Open Payments program website that 2016 data is now available for you to review until June 1, 2017.

The Open Payments fall under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and contain compiled information about payments physicians receive from drug and device companies that are related to things like “travel, research, gifts, speaking fees, and meals,” the Open Payments website says. The program promotes physical transparency and allows the public to see how providers might be reimbursed or incentivized by various private organizations.

Along with its 2016 data, CMS will also make available physician information from 2013, 2014, and 2015 on June 1.

Physicians have the option of reviewing this data until the release date and can dispute any findings they deem incorrect between now and May 15, when the review period ends.

You can register to look at your information in a two-part process that 1.) requires you to confirm your credentials in the Enterprise Identity Management System and 2.) login to the CMS Open Payments system through a portal at https://portal.cms.gov/wps/portal/unauthportal/home/.

CMS has put together guidance for providers on the review and dispute process at https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/NPC/Downloads/2017-04-13-Open-Payments-Presentation.pdf.

In other news ...

Starting June 1, Medicare will require you to use a new form for physician kickback violation situations.

CMS “issued a new Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol (SRDP) Form that provides a streamlined and standardized format for disclosing actual or potential violations of the physician self-referral law,” CMS says on its website. “The SRDP Form will reduce the burden on providers and suppliers submitting disclosures to the SRDP and facilitate our review of the disclosures.”

While the deadline to use the form isn’t until June, CMS encourages providers to use it now.

See a link to the form and more information about Medicare’s SRDP at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Fraud-and-Abuse/PhysicianSelfReferral/Self_Referral_Disclosure_Protocol.html.