The Physician Payment Sunshine or Sunshine Act as it is commonly known; was passed in 2010. This act is applicable to the medical manufacturing companies of drugs, medical devices, and other medical products that receive compensation from the U.S government. There have been quite a few rumors and controversies about this act circulating in the healthcare industry. It is therefore good to know exactly what this act is and what it entails.

Here are some facts about the Sunshine Act you may not know.

– This act mandates all the medical manufacturers and vendors who are covered by Medicare or Medicaid to disclose all the payment information in the form of annual reports, to the CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services).

– All transactions between medical manufacturers and teaching hospitals and ‘covered entities’ must be reported. ‘Covered entities’ are those units that accept payment from the medical manufacturers at their own request. The manufacturing companies are advised to also record and track the medical products are devices that may be compensated in later years. If the value of payment received by the covered entities is less than $10 for a product or less that $100 for all the payments in a year, then those payments need not be reported.

– Furthermore, if the medical practitioner conducts financial transactions with the medical manufacturer who is his/her employer, then those transactions do not need to be reported to CMS. Also products that are under warranty period, sample, patient educational items, and so on need not be reported.

– If the payments between the two parties are in the form of cash, check, cash equivalents, stocks, services, or dividends, they have to be reported. A separate line item has to be created for each transaction between physician and medical manufactures, in case of many transactions.

– The final implementation of the Sunshine Act will be complete in March 2013. This is when the first formal reports for the year 2012 must be sent to the CMS. From then on, every year reports will be sent for the previous year. All the information included in these reports will be uploaded online for the public to view and download. The annual reports will include financial details of the transaction, as well as nature of the relationship between the two parties. If the physician or any of his family members, such as spouse, children, siblings, and parents, are related in any way to the manufacturing company, this will also be recorded in the report. Failure to leave out any pertinent information from the report will be seen as non compliance, and the agency will have to face severe legal ramifications. Hence, it is important to understand this act in details before it is properly implemented.

The five points mentioned above are the essential elements of the Sunshine Act. They will help you understand better the implications of this act. Though the healthcare industry is divided about the benefits of this act to the healthcare industry, only the future will tell how effective it really is.

For more information, please visit our Texas HB300 website.

For more information, please visit our Texas HB300 website http://www.hipaaexams.com/sunshine-act.asp

Author Bio: For more information, please visit our Texas HB300 website.

Category: Advice
Keywords: Texas HB300