What’s in a Name?

Everyone knows what “payment” means. But what’s covered by the more enigmatic phrase “transfers of value” in PPACA’s Sunshine provision? The text of the law states that transfers of value include: Consulting fees Compensation for services other than consulting Honoraria Gifts Entertainment Food Travel Education Research Charitable contribution Royalty or license Current or prospective ownership or investment interest Direct compensation for serving as faculty or as a speaker for a medical education program Grants Any other nature of the payment or other transfer of value (as defined by the Secretary [of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services]).

she thinks is the only feasible method for capturing the neces- sary data—at least for a large meeting like ATS, which has about 13,000 attendees. That said, ATS has already begun to formulate the database for its 2012 International Conference. What has it added to the meeting’s registration form? “We haven’t added anything,” Turenne said. “That’s the challenge that I think industry is going to have. If you talk to most asso- ciations about Sunshine reporting and NPI, they have no idea what you are talking about.”

Member Relations Another issue concerns attendees themselves. “If I start asking physicians for their NPI numbers,” Johnson said, “a lot [of them] are going to ask me, ‘Why?’ And maybe theywon’t want to give it out.” The Endocrine Society previously hasn’t collected NPI numbers. “It’s not something that we’ve needed,” Johnson said. In fact, there seems to be confusion over what an NPI num-

ber is, and how public or private it should be. One source who plans medical meetings told Convene: “I can’t imagine us ask- ing for or physicians giving us their NPI number. It would be like giving out their e-mail.” But NPI numbers aren’t actually private. “[NPI numbers] are actually on a public website,” said Turenne, who used to work as a drug rep. “That was actually one of the first things that came up when I started talking about this. Someone said, ‘They can’t use that number, because it will increase fraud.’ No. The NPI number is part of the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System,” or NPPES, which is run by HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. NPPES maintains a publicly accessible website at https://