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In what appears to be an about face, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has revised a controversial provision of the Open Payments program and will now require companies to report payments to physicians who speak at, or attend, continuing medical education seminars. The change comes less than two months after the agency declared there are circumstances in which such payments would not have to be disclosed. In fact, this marks the fifth time that CMS has offered yet another interpretation of its final rule on disclosing CME payments. (Silverman, 12/17)

The federal government recently unveiled a website called Open Payments that provides details about payments made by pharmaceutical and medical device companies to physicians. Initial news stories noted some interesting details. During the last 5 months of 2013, these companies paid physicians almost $3.5 billion in speaking and consulting fees, with some physicians earning more than half a million dollars in that period. The Open Payments site was immediately criticized for multiple problems, including the difficulty people have in navigating the site and the fact that there might be misattribution of some payments. Government officials said they plan to improve the site, and later introduced a search tool, making it easier for consumers to find their physician. Meanwhile, drug and device manufacturers and physician groups continue to complain that patients might misinterpret the data on the site. (Thacker, Kesselheim and Campbell,12/17)