As follow-up to our recent post on the issues that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is experiencing with its Open Payments database, there is new information that additional data also may be excluded when the payments are made public this month.  Last week, ProPublica published an article that states: “Now, a source familiar with the matter tells ProPublica that CMS won’t disclose another batch of payments: research grants made by pharmaceutical companies to doctors through intermediaries, such as contract research organizations. In these cases, doctors apparently have not been given a chance to verify and dispute payments attributed to them, as required by law.”  CMS has not yet provided this information directly to industry, further highlighting concerns raised by the American Medical Association and other physician organizations regarding widespread confusion and poor communication related to the public release of the data this month.

We will continue to monitor and provide updates as CMS’ publication deadline nears.