Oct. 12, 2015 – A bill introduced in the Senate last week by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) would broaden Sunshine Act Open Payments reporting to nurse practitioners and physician assistants, according to a recent article in Policy and Medicine.
“Although Senators Grassley and Blumenthal are true believers, it’s probably premature to extend the scope of the Sunshine Act while government and industry are still struggling to comply with the existing rules,” said Coalition for Healthcare Communication Executive Director John Kamp. “Meanwhile, there are much more urgent health policy issues facing the Senate, including the need to adopt a Senate version of the 21st Century Cures bill that overwhelming passed the House recently. What we need is a pathway to faster cures for what ails American citizens, not more bureaucracy and paperwork,” Kamp said.
S. 2153 was introduced Oct. 7 and would “amend Title XI of the Social Security Act to require applicable manufacturers to include information regarding payments made to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other advance practice nurses in transparency reports submitted under section 1128G of such Act.”
A summary of the bill has not yet been released.
To read the full article, go to: http://www.policymed.com/2015/10/sen-grassley-introduces-bill-to-expand-open-payments-reporting-requirements-to-nurse-practitioners-a.html