MASSDEVICE ON CALL — A group of 19 healthcare advocacy groups this week submitted a letter asking the Obama Administration to issue the long-awaited guidelines on the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had promised to issue the Sunshine Act rules before the end of last year, but no rules have yet been unveiled.
Designed to eliminate fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, the Sunshine Act will govern and provide transparency for the relationships between industry and healthcare providers.
"There is a significant consequence for healthcare system costs associated with the ongoing delay in implementation because of the practice by some physicians of over-prescribing certain drugs, or by otherwise prescribing medically unnecessary and expensive treatments," according to the letter, which was signed by the American Association of Retired Persons, the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations and 17 others, Healthwatch reported.
Several groups have in recent months sent letters to the White House Office of Management & Budget, including a December letter signed by medical device maker Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Pew Chartable Trusts, and another call for action issued earlier this month by the American Medical Assn. and the National Physicians Alliance, among others.
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