On February 1, the Department of Health and Human Services released a final rule implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements for manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals, or medical supplies covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to report annually certain payments or transfers of value provided to physicians or teaching hospitals. The final rule also requires manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to disclose to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) physician ownership or investment interests.

Applicable manufacturers and GPOs must begin to collect the required data on August 1, 2013, and report the data to CMS by March 31, 2014.  CMS will release the data on a public website by September 30, 2014, before which applicable manufacturers and GPOs, as well as the physicians and teaching hospitals, will have an opportunity to review and correct reported information.