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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is extending the deadlines for the review and dispute process for its Open Payments system to Sept. 10. It is the second announced delay in the past month.
The agency is altering the deadline because scheduled maintenance on the Open Payments system has interrupted its availability recently. (The next service disruption is set for Sept. 5.) The deadline is being extended to "allow ample time in the review, dispute, and correction process," the agency announced on Aug. 28.
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The extended deadline is the second delay in the past month.
The new window for the review and dispute process now closes Sept. 10, with the correction period now going from Sept. 11 to Sept. 25. The CMS still plans to publish information on Sept. 30.
The CMS reactivated the system in early August after technical glitches that caused data to be linked to the wrong physician forced Open Payments offline for several days. When it was back online, the review and dispute deadline was extended to Sept. 8 from the previous Aug. 27 deadline.
The Open Payments Program, created by the Affordable Care Act, aims to add transparency to the financial relationship between the health care industry and physicians and teaching hospitals. However, the system has had numerous technical issues and the agency has previously said that about a third of payment information will not be available when information is released to the public on Sept. 30.
