The Sunshine Act was passed so that all businesses and organizations could be transparent for public observation. The aim of this act was that the general public could be involved in the workings of governmental organizations are these organizations could be held accountable for all their actions. In 2010, this act was passed with regard to the health care system, and is legally known as the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. By March 2013 all agencies were meant to comply with the regulations of this act.

This law is only few years old and therefore there are many misconceptions about it in the minds of healthcare professionals. The act states that all manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, and medical and biological products, must disclose any financial dealings with physicians, including all the details of such transactions.

Here are some essential points about the Physician Payment Sunshine Act.

– The Sunshine Act has enabled the general public of the U.S to be able to clearly see what their physicians are doing. They will be able to ascertain whether the physicians are prescribing medicines due to pressure from the medical vendors or based on the needs of the patients. All the needs will be uploaded on the internet for the people to see.

– The medical manufacturers and physicians are required to send annual reports with details of their financial transactions to the CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) department of the Health and Human Services. These reports are to be clear, detailed, and electronic.

– If any agency fails to report any transaction by mistake, they will have to pay a fine ranging anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 for each transaction not reported. However, if the failure to report is intentional, then the fines will be increased and can vary from $10,000 to $100,000 for each transaction not reported.

– The Sunshine Act specifies that these reports have to be informative and detailed. They must include, date, name of the drug, medical product or device in question, value, vendor ID, name of physician, and his address. They must also contain the form of payment, whether cash or check. Even if the exchange is made in the form of food, entertainment, gifts, funding, charity, consultation fees, and so on, it must all be reported. The act requires any financial transactions and payments to be recorded and reported so they can be tracked and can be shared with the public. This will keep the physicians and medical manufactures accountable to the general public. If the reports are not sent or are incomplete, these will be severe fines and mentioned before. However, payments less than $10 do not need to be reported.

There has been much opposition to this act and there are a number of lawsuits against its implementation. Nevertheless, The Sunshine Act is already being implemented all across the country and will be implemented completely throughout the U.S by 2014.Therefore it is essential that all healthcare professionals educate themselves about this act before its complete implementation.

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