The third cycle of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act/Open Payments opened on April 1. Manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and biologics have reported payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals for calendar year 2015 and corrected payments for prior years.

The review and dispute period has begun and physicians have 45 days to dispute inaccurate payment information. The deadline for submitting disputes is expected to be May 15. Physicians must record disputes directly in the Open Payments system, which then alerts the manufacturer. This year, manufacturers have provided their contact information in the Open Payments system to assist physicians in resolving the dispute. All resolutions must be submitted by the manufacturer to CMS by May 30. Payment data is expected to be publicly available on the Open Payments web site on June 30.

Physicians should also review reported research payments for which they are identified as a principal investigator. CMS uses its own criteria to define principal investigators, so co-investigators may be identified.

To view reported payments, you must register in the CMS Enterprise Portal and with Open Payments. If you previously registered but have not logged in within 180 days, you should call the support desk at 1-855-326-8366 or email openpayments@cms.hhs.gov to reinstate the account. You can find additional instructions and FAQs on the CMS website.