Sitting on President Trump’s desk is one of the largest pieces of opioid legislation ever developed. Specifically, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. This is a wide reaching bill but there are a few provisions that might go unnoticed to many. Today, we are going to talk about one. The impact this bill has on physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, and nurse midwifes (“Advanced Practice Providers” or “APPs”). Starting in 2022, APPs will be included in a national transparency database highlighting their financial relationships with manufacturers.
Physician Payment Sunshine Act
The Physician Payments Sunshine Act (“Sunshine Act”) requires medical product manufacturers to disclose to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) any payments or other transfers of value made to physicians or teaching hospitals. You can search specific data via the CMS Open Payments website found here.
The government states that “Open Payments is a national disclosure program that promotes a more transparent and accountable health care system by making the financial relationships between applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and health care providers.”
New Changes for APPs
So what does this mean for organizations across the country? First, this applies to manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and supplies, and biologics. Organizations in those businesses must prepare and develop processes to capture any payments made to APPs. Second, organizations that employ APPs must begin implementing process to strengthen their conflicts of interest processes. While normally there is a heightened organizational focus on physicians, APPs will now be at a critical point of transparency.
Finally, APPs themselves must understand how this impacts them individually. For example, if an APP is speaking for a pharmaceutical company or attending a dinner, that individual’s name will be reported to the government. There are no penalties with respect to those financial arrangements but it does result in increased scrutiny for what APPs prescribe. Above all, APPs must begin to think about any payments they receive from any of these companies.
While this bill is still waiting on a final signature, it is likely to be signed given the other provisions in the bill.