Open Payments are online but 40% of records will lack physician data until 2015

Why This Topic Matters

Open Payments data can affect physician and hospital compliance workflows, financial transparency reviews, and internal data analysis. Understanding the public release timing, record status categories, and file-size limitations helps organizations know what to expect when reviewing CMS data.

Article Sections

1. Compliance

   Introduces the public release of CMS Open Payments data and frames the article’s compliance context.

2. Data categories in the initial Open Payments collection

   Summarizes the major categories of information included in the first collection period and the general scope of the reported data.

3. Your data could be there but ‘de-identified’

   Explains that some records may appear without identifying information and describes the broad reasons data can be published in a non-identifiable form or withheld.

4. Beware of big files

   Covers the size of the downloadable files, available CMS tools for searching and viewing the data, and general file-handling considerations.