CMS Delays Sunshine Act Data Collection Until January 2013

On May 3, 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") announced that manufacturers will not be required to collect data under the physician payment sunshine provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act before January 1, 2013. The announcement closed by stating that CMS intends to publish a final rule "later this year."

On December 19, 2011, CMS issued a proposed rule implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (the "Act") with the goal of providing transparency and accountability with respect to certain financial relationships between healthcare providers and the drug, device and group purchasing industries. During the 60 day comment period, CMS received more than 300 comments from a wide range of stakeholders.

CMS recognized the need to respond to the many issues raised in these comments and stated that "in order to provide time for organizations to prepare for data submission and to sufficiently address the important input we received during the rulemaking process, CMS will not require data collection by applicable manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations before January 1, 2013."  

On April 4, 2012, Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, the authors of the Sunshine Act, sent a letter to CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, asking CMS to implement the Act as "expeditiously as possible." The senators' letter emphasized the need to work closely with stakeholders to ensure the final regulations contain clear definitions and guidelines for reporting.

The Act requires the first report from manufacturers by March 31, 2013; however, given this development, it seems likely that CMS will have to extend this deadline. While stakeholders may be thankful for the delay in data collection, less-than-sunny dispositions may be in the forecast in the days ahead for those involved in interpreting and implementing the Act.