$1.1B in Payments Missing From Physician Payment Site

CMS' recently launched physician payment website is missing $1.1 billion in payments made by drugmakers and medical device manufacturers to health care providers, according to a CMS factsheet. CMS said it would not publish information regarding 9,000 payments that had been disputed by doctors or hospitals during the physician review period. In addition, CMS said it would withhold data on 190,000 research payments for drugs and medical devices that have not been introduced to the market, as is required by the law.

• "$1.1 Billion in Drug, Device Payments to Doctors Not Included in New Federal Database" (Ornstein, ProPublica, 10/6).