Medtronic and the U.S. Sunshine Act
Medtronic has taken a leadership role to promote transparency into the collaboration between physicians and industry. In 2008, we supported legislation that would require industry-wide reporting of physician compensation, known as the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Congress passed a version of the Sunshine legislation in 2010 in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
As part of our commitment to transparency, we voluntarily track and publicly post payment data for certain services as part of our Physician Collaboration Initiative. Click here to read more.
The “Sunshine Act” requires Medtronic and all other life science manufacturers to report to the federal government payments and other “transfers of value” to U.S. physicians and teaching hospitals. Transfers of value include, among other things, meals or lodging costs associated with education programs and other lawful courtesies provided in the course of doing business, compensation for consulting services, royalty payments and others.
The Sunshine Act originally required tracking payments and transfers of value beginning January 1, 2012. On May 3, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that due to continuing delays in refining regulations that describe how manufacturers are to comply with the Sunshine Act, CMS will not require manufacturers to report information about transfers of value that occur before January 1, 2013.
More information about Medtronic’s process for tracking and reporting payments will be available after Sunshine Act regulations have been finalized.
For more information on Medtronic and the Sunshine Act, please contact us.