LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Physicians’ offices worried about compliance with the Sunshine Act can take a breather. RxVantage, a healthcare technology company with an innovative cloud-based platform that enables physicians' practices to streamline and improve their relationships with biopharmaceutical and other medical sales representatives, has provided five simple facts that help to clear up confusion about recently finalized Federal legislation called the Open Payments or Sunshine Act.
The goal of The Sunshine Act is to encourage greater transparency about the financial interactions between physicians and industry. For example, manufacturers are required to report on certain payments, meals, and other “transfers of value” provided to physicians. Beginning in September of 2014, the data will be published on a public website created by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS).
However, many physician offices report confusion over what is and is not permitted and required under the Sunshine Act. Some are worried their providers may lose the ability to connect with reps that provide important information. Here are five simple facts that will help assure any practice its administrators and providers better understand the Sunshine Act.
| 1. | All medical offices need to ensure they know about new medications, recalls, and black box warnings – pharma and medical reps can help. Each day there are more than 250,000 visits from biopharmaceutical and other medical vendor representatives to medical offices. The purpose of these convenient educational interactions is to offer the latest FDA-approved information to providers and staff about medical products and the conditions those products are approved to treat. | ||||
| 2. | Medical offices will not be fined or be subject to penalties if their offices continue to see pharma reps. Nor does the Sunshine Act prohibit medical offices from interacting with reps or does it disallow lunch appointments (which are popular among offices, enabling lunch-and-learns that benefit the entire practice). | ||||
| 3. | Ensuring practices keep up with Sunshine Act is important – but simple. Industry has now begun to record information related to “transfers of value” to medical practices and providers. While there is no requirement that medical practices also record this type of information, it is a good idea to ensure only accurate information is submitted. CMS gives medical offices the ability to cross-check what their reps report against what their internal records show. | ||||
| 4. | Educational presentations do not need to be given in conjunction with a meal. Reps are happy to simply present information to your office staff. If meals are provided by the rep, the reporting threshold is $10 per participant. Remember that as long as the per-participant cost is $10 or less, the “transfer of value” is not captured by CMS. | ||||
| 5. | Pharma reps are working to ensure they provide value and relevant information providers can trust. They are adapting new technologies to bring further efficiencies, control and cost savings to physician practices. |
Responding to the Sunshine Act earlier this year, RxVantage launched a new module called the Sunshine Act Tracker™ providing physicians’ offices with the ability to capture and report on data for recording office exposure to Sunshine Act thresholds; for example the dollar value of meals served during pharmaceutical presentations. The new module is in addition to RxVantage’s comprehensive suite of efficiency tools, including a rules-based rep scheduling application and a suite of software tools designed to make requesting samples and communicating with medical reps markedly more efficient.
“Unfortunately there is a fair amount of misinformation out there about the Sunshine Act,” notes Jay Goss, CEO of RxVantage. “Physician offices that appreciate and need information provided by trusted reps don’t need to change their policies. What they do need to do is to apply new technology that helps simplify the entire biopharma rep visit process while helping them track what pharma reports to the CMS website.”
About RxVantage
RxVantage is a venture capital backed, Los Angeles based healthcare technology company with an innovative cloud‐based platform that enables physicians' practices to streamline and improve their relationships with biopharmaceutical and other medical sales reps. The platform includes a rules-based rep scheduling application and a suite of software tools designed to make requesting samples and communicating with medical reps markedly more efficient. The technology also features an up-to-date, centralized directory of patient assistance programs and a comprehensive drug coupon database, powered by RxAssist, which greatly simplifies the practices' task of researching prescription medication information on behalf of its patients. For more information, visit www.rxvantage.com or call 866-464-2157.
