Sunshine Act Resources
Resources for Physicians and Teaching Hospitals
Open Payments: Overview for Physicians
CMS Open Payments Helpdesk
Openpayments@hhs.cms.gov
1-855-326-8366
CMS Open Payments Program Requirements
The Sunshine Act, formally known as is the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, increases transparency, promotes accountability, and reduces unethical behavior by publicly disclosing financial relationships between the medical industry and healthcare providers.
The Sunshine Act requires manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and biologics to collect information about payments made to teaching hospitals and licensed physicians, and to report these transfers of value annually to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The Act is a provision of the Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010.
Transfers of Value Examples
- Consulting fees about products
- Meals, travel, accommodation
- Speaker fees and honoraria
- Educational items
- Research grants
- Royality payments, etc.
Sunshine Act Reporting Process
Step 1 – Register with CMS
Register with the CMS Enterprise Portal System. Registrants receive open payments email updates about data that industry has submitted.
Step 2 – Review Data
We encourage physicians to review and, if necessary, dispute their data in the CMS portal. While data can be reviewed at any time, a 45-day deadline for the previous calendar year begins April 1 during which incorrect information can be amended prior to publication mid-year. Drug and device companies have an additional 15 days to correct any disputed records.
Step 3 – Final Data
CMS publishes and makes public the final data for the prior calendar year on the Open Payments website on June 30.