On February 1, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) announced the release of the final regulations implementing the
Transparency Reports and Reporting of Physician Ownership or Investment
Interests section of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly
referred to as the “Sunshine Act.” Among other things, the Sunshine Act
requires applicable manufacturers of covered drugs, devices, biological
products, and medical supplies to report annually certain information regarding
payments and other transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals.
According to the Sunshine Act, applicable manufacturers are not required to
report transfers of anything valued at less than $10, unless the aggregate
amount “transferred to, requested by, or designated on behalf of the covered
recipient by the applicable manufacturer during the calendar year exceeds
$100.” The Sunshine Act further states that “[f]or calendar years after 2012,
the dollar amounts specified [above] shall be increased by the same percentage
as the percentage increase in the consumer price index for all urban consumers
. . . for the 12-month period ending with June of the previous year.”
As such, CMS recently adjusted the reporting threshold based on the consumer price index. For the 2014 reporting period (January 1 – December 31), applicable manufacturers are not required to report transfers of anything valued at less than $10.18, unless the aggregate amount transferred to, requested by, or designated on behalf of a covered recipient exceeds $101.75 in the calendar year.
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