be liable for charge-backs. Businesses accepting chip cards through chip ter- minals would be protected from finan- cial liability through their agreements with credit card issuers. Watch out for scams. Earlier this


year, the TMA Knowledge Center became aware of physician offices re- ceiving calls from a “credit card com- pany” saying they needed to switch to a “medical credit card system” and pay for training. Instead, when you are ready to change over to chip card technology, turn to your payment pro- cessing service (for example, TMA’s endorsed vendor, TransFirst) or what- ever reputable seller or equipment leaser you would normally go to for a payment terminal. For more informa- tion about TMA’s endorsed vendors, visit www.texmed.org/endorsed.


2014 Open Payments data total $6.49B


THE CENTERS for Medicare & Med- icaid Services (CMS) published 2014 Open Payments data detailing trans- fers of value by drug and medical device makers to health care profes- sionals. The data include information about 11.4 million financial transac- tions attributed to more than 600,000 physicians and 1,100 teaching hospi- tals, totaling $6.49 billion. Acting CMS Administrator Andy


Slavitt said in a release, “In year two, Open Payments is now a highly searchable resource to provide trans- parency to over one-and-a-half years’ worth of financial transactions be- tween drug and device companies and physicians and teaching hospitals. This is part of our larger effort to open up the health care system to consum- ers by providing more information to help in their decision making.” For all 2014 and 2013 data, CMS


was able to validate that 98.8 percent of all records submitted in the Open Payments system contained accurate identifying information about the


September 2015 TEXAS MEDICINE 15


associated covered recipient. CMS rejected and did not process records that could not be verified. CMS will continue to update the Open Pay- ments website annually with data col- lected from the previous year. The Open Payments program, cre-


ated by the Affordable Care Act, re- quires drug and device manufactur- ers to report transfers of value (pay- ments, honoraria, or research grants) to health care professionals, as well as other industry-related investments. The program relies on voluntary par- ticipation by physicians and teaching hospitals to review the information submitted. Registered physicians and teaching hospitals reviewed nearly 30 percent of the total value of the re- ported data. Before publication of any Open


Payments data, physicians and teach- ing hospitals have the opportunity to register with the Open Payments system to review and dispute data submitted about them by applicable


manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs). With this data release, the 2014 and 2013 financial re- cords are now available as part of the Open Payments dataset. An analysis of the physicians and


teaching hospitals included in report- ed data reveals distinct differences be- tween those that have registered and those that have not. For example, CMS says the median value of total pay- ments made to registered physicians is $3,644, compared with $747 made to nonregistered covered recipient physicians. CMS will update the Open Pay-


ments data at least annually to include data disputes and other data correc- tions made since the initial publi- cation. Applicable drug and device manufacturers and applicable GPOs submitted the financial data available through Open Payments. The submit- ting manufacturer or GPO attests to the accuracy of all data included in Open Payments reporting.


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