MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Physicians’ groups are up in arms about the looming launch of the a public database of industry-doctor relationships, citing concerns about errors in reporting and security breaches that appear to muddle the program’s credibility.
The public database, scheduled to go live September 30, will allow anyone with interest to peruse troves of data about the financial exchanges between doctors and manufacturers of drugs and medical devices, but the novel program has its share of issues.
Regulators have reportedly rejected one-third of the records provided by manufacturers because they were riddled with errors, but the agency isn’t pushing back the September 30 deadline, Law360.com reported. It’ll be about a year before the revised records are published in the database and CMS is threatening manufacturers with fines if they can’t get their ducks in a row.
The American Medical Assn. and other groups have been pleading for delays to the program as physicians continue to raise concerns about the inaccurate records and occasional data overlap with doctors who share a name, but CMS is sticking to its guns and its time line, despite issues that briefly took the database offline last week.
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