The CME Coalition has submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with respect to the Dispute Resolution process for Open Payments, the program to implement the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. While endorsing the manifest goals of the Sunshine Act, the Coalition recommends that CMS delay publication of the payments information to allow physicians ample opportunity to correct the record on their reported payments.
In July, the CME Coalition published a comprehensive Sunshine Act Compliance Guidebook to provide commercial supporters, CME providers, and CME event participants with clear rules for ensuring compliance with the Sunshine Act.
Today, the Coalition published a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) supplement to our Compliance Guide, which includes important answers and citations to regulation intended to answer a number of questions, including: Today, the CME Coalition published a comprehensive Sunshine Act Compliance Guidebook to provide commercial supporters, CME providers, and CME event participants with clear rules for ensuring compliance with the Sunshine Act. This Guide is based upon a thorough review of the most recent CMS guidance, regarding the requirements for determining which payments may be exempt from the mandated Sunshine reporting rules, and when others must be reported. Further, this summary is based on authorities existing as of the date of this document, and any recommendations herein are subject to further guidance from CMS. The guidebook is available by way of the link provided above.
Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pubished new guidance in the form of a frequently asked questions document, which provides clarity to several issues in the Sunshine Act raised by the CME Coalition in recent meetings with the agency. They were able to clarify some important questions, as detailed below.
While the Final Rule for the Physician Payment Sunshine Act clarified that there are specific exemptions to the law's reporting requirements for the dissemination of continuing medical education (CME), there were many questions left for commercial supporters of CME. These slides from the CME Coalition's recent webinar explain how CME providers must follow a defined set of regulations to eliminate any “conflict of interest,” while noting that CMS’ intent is to encourage more CME support. The presentation concludes that commercial supporters of CME should have enough comfort in the “CME Exemption” to move forward without fear of penalty
Today, the CME Coalition's Senior Advisor sent a letter to Commercial Supporter Compliance Officers outlining the Coalition's recommendations for how to implement a Sunshine-Exempt CME programs. Although a certain degree of uncertainty lingers regarding the degree to which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is going to require the reporting of certain transfers of value, the Coalition strongly believes that there is ample guidance in the Final Rule to move forward with designing CME programs that are exempted from the Act's reporting requirements.
Today, the CME Coalition met with the Sunshine Act implementation team in Baltimore, Maryland to discuss the details of the law with respect to the exemption for continuing medical education (CME). In today's meeting, the Coalition presented the seven questions and proposed answers that were recently submitted to the agency in order to get more clarity on issues involving the reporting of food, travel, and the list of accrediting bodies, among others.
In response to the Final Rule implementing the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, the CME Coalition submitted a series of questions to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) seeking clarification regarding the practice of continuing medical education (CME). The CME Coalition has greatly appreciated the opportunities afforded by CMS to share our experiences and views with regard to the most effective means of implementing the Sunshine Act, while preventing unintended consequences that might negatively impact physician access to quality, unbiased, and scientifically valid continuing medical education.
Following the release of the Final Rule implementing the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, the CME Coalition published the following flow chart to provide a fairly simple visual guide for the basic rules of the road. This document provides a user-friendly diagram that is designed to allow CME providers, physicians, and other stakeholders to simply interpret the Sunshine Act's exemptions for continuing medical education activities.
Chart available here and below. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today thefinal regulations to implement the Physician Payment Sunshine Act—Section 6002 of the Affordable Care Act. Listening to the overwhelming majority of comments with respect to the continuing medical education (CME) industry, CMS has exempted payments or other transfers of value provided as compensation for speaking at a continuing education if certain conditions are met—which are consistent with the ACCME’s accreditation standards and standards for commercial support.
The final rule is available here. |