What Expenses need to be tracked under the Sunshine Act?

Under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, drug and medical device suppliers nationwide must track specific expenses. However, many firms might be unfamiliar with the regulation or its conditions, which can make it nearly impossible to avoid compliance issues.

A well-informed business operator could help his or her firm stay on track with its operating costs. Even a minor expenditure can have far-flung effects on a company, especially for a drug or medical device provider that must comply with the Sunshine Act.

With state-of-the-art receipt management software from Certify, a firm could prevent expense reporting errors. Sunshine Act compliance software may benefit both big and small firms, enabling these companies to manage their operating expenses for extended periods of time.

Monitoring expenses under the Sunshine Act The American Medical Association's Jeremy Lazarus points out that the Sunshine Act helps ensure transparency in physicians' interactions with members of the pharmaceutical, biologic and medical device industries. Because the regulation features steep penalties, however, companies are taking steps to ensure that they manage their expenses accordingly.

Under the Sunshine Act, any transfers of value or payments to physicians and hospitals greater than $10 must be reported to the federal government. These expenses include consulting fees, research costs and much more, and all contributions exceeding $100 will be published on a public website as well.

Meanwhile, a business that ignores the Sunshine Act may receive annual fines up to $1 million. Drug and medical device manufacturers can prevent compliance problems, however, if they invest in expense reporting platforms.

A high-quality Sunshine Act compliance solution To navigate the Sunshine Act, a firm can rely on Certify's high-quality compliance software. This platform allows companies to track expenses quickly and effectively, enabling these businesses to submit timely, accurate reports to the federal government. Certify's innovative expense management system makes it easy for employees to send error-free materials to managers. Additionally, supervisors can use the solution to report on all National Provider Identifier data by depending on a web-based platform.

On-the-go functionality also makes Certify's Sunshine Act compliance solution a first-rate choice for businesses of all sizes. Certify users can link multiple physicians to a single expense, create federally required reports and perform other tasks on their smartphones and tablets.

The Sunshine Act may seem confusing at first, but Certify is incredibly valuable to firms that must comply with this regulation. In fact, an investment in this expense reporting solution gives team members access to top-notch tools that may help them for years to come.

Asking more about the Sunshine Act

Even though it is just implemented in the past years some of the people are having the hard time when it comes to the Sunshine Act. The Physician Payments Sunshine Act deadline is fast approaching. The new law has already taken effect, so hopefully you’ve already heard of it and taken steps to prepare. If not, you need to review the reporting requirements as soon as possible, and prepare what may be a lot of detailed information in just a few days.

For those who may be new to the medical industry, or for those who need a quick recap, we’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions related to Sunshine Act reporting below.

Question #1:Who needs to comply with the Sunshine Act? Drug manufacturers, medical device manufacturers, and medical supply manufacturers operating in the US must report all monetary and/or value information transactions made to physicians and/or teaching hospitals.

Question #2: What must be reported? Items that must be reported include: any payments or value transfers of $10 or more made to physicians and/or teaching hospitals. Third party payments or transfers (i.e., payments or transfers made by a third party on behalf of a physician), or entity transfers (i.e., payments or transfers made to an organization with instructions to provide those payments or transfers to a specific physician or group of physicians) must also be reported.

Question #3: What are the penalties for failing to comply with the reporting requirement? Fines for noncompliance range from $1,000 to $10,000 for each unreported item, with a maximum penalty of $1,000,000 per organization.

Question #4: What are the key dates you need to know? August 1, 2013 – Manufacturers and GPOs must begin collecting data December 31, 2013 – The last day of data collection for the 2013 report March 31, 2014 – 2013 report deadline May 15, 2014 – Last day for physicians to review and dispute reported 2013 data before information is made public September 30, 2014 – First day 2013 data is posted to a public website

Question #5: What does each entry need to include? Each entry should include the physician/hospital name, NPI, primary specialty code, practice name, and practice address. The product name, details about the product, the nature of the benefit, and the amount of the expense must also be included.

Why is Sunshine Act compliance software is helpful?

An innovative expense reporting solution delivers myriad benefits to drug and medical device manufacturers. Within short periods of time, these businesses can track and submit expense reports relating to how much they provided to physicians and teaching hospitals. Software to track physician payments is valuable to companies because the system helps firms save time and money. Additionally, the platform offers on-the-go functionality, and users can enter data into their smartphones and tablets to develop first-rate reports. Sunshine Act reporting software also enables drug and medical device providers to track expenses by using specific criteria. The solution is dynamic and allows users to enter expense categories, dates and other details to ensure Sunshine Act compliance.

A web-based system provides instant access to expense reports at any time, which further boost the solution's value to drug and medical device manufacturers. It is easy to use and has National Provider Identifier (NPI) functionality to help users generate federally required reports without delay.

In short periods of time, managers can find physicians, link multiple medical professionals to a single expense and complete first-rate reports thanks to top-notch Sunshine Act reporting software. With an NPI database that is updated monthly, users can get up-to-the-minute reports on physician payments and secure their data to comply with Sunshine Act provisions.