Open Payments, also known as The Sunshine Act, is a national disclosure program that promotes a more transparent and accountable health care system by making the financial relationships between applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and health care providers (physicians and teaching hospitals) available to the public.

CMS is aware that the COVID-19 pandemic is greatly impacting the healthcare community as a whole and understands the tireless work of its healthcare providers this time. However, due to statutory limitations, CMS does not have the authority to postpone the review and dispute period of April 1-May 15, 2020.

The review and dispute period for physicians and teaching hospitals remains April 1-May 15, 2020. In order to complete the review and dispute process, covered recipients must register in the Open Payments system.

Covered Recipients have until December 31, 2020 to initiate disputes of data published in 2020. If a new dispute is initiated after the 45-day review and dispute window (April 1-May 15), it will be published as original attested-to data in the initial data publication.

A comprehensive list of frequently asked questions about the Open Payments program is provided on the CMS website. These FAQs are reviewed and revised as needed in order to support the implementation of the program.

 

Today the regulatory landscape in healthcare is changing in response to the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 public health crisis. In addition, UConn Health has had to quickly adapt how it provides patient care in order to protect both our staff and patients. One of these areas of changing regulations and adaption is providing care through virtual medicine formats such as eVisits and telehealth. So what is the difference between an eVisits and telehealth?

Q: What is an eVisit?

A: eVisits are patient initiated communications with their provider through an online patient portal such as MyChart. eVisits require evaluation, assessment, and management of the patient.

Q: What is telehealth?

A: Telehealth consists of a real time communication between the provider and patient using an interactive audio and video telecommunications system which the provider initiates.

Other forms of virtual medicine include telephone or audio only communications, remote image evaluations and virtual check-ins. All types of virtual encounters let the patient communicate with their provider without having to come into the office. Although these encounters are not done onsite, the same documentation principles remain. 

Guidance on reimbursement and/or payment for these services is changing rapidly. Staff at UConn Health are working hard to make sure that these changes are being addressed behind the scenes to ensure the least amount of disruption for our providers. Providers who have documentation and coding questions can email codinghelp@uchc.edu for assistance.