In a blog post on May 3, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a delay to implementation of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Referred to as the Sunshine Act, the provision was developed to require physicians to disclose any financial compensation worth more than $10 from pharmaceutical or medical device companies. Financial compensation includes speaking fees, gifts, and dinners for example. The Act indicates that disclosures will eventually be made public in a searchable database.
The CMS blog post indicates that the proposed rule on implementation of the Sunshine Act, which was published in Dec 2011, resulted in over 300 comments from stakeholders. Based on this volume of feedback, CMS has so far been unable to publish a final rule on the provision. With a final rule expected to be published later this year, CMS has announced that it will not require data collection of financial compensation prior to Jan 1, 2013.
