If approved by the Office of Management and Budget, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will be mandating the reporting of financial relationships with physicians in a Disclosure of Financial Relationships Report (DFRR) for certain hospitals. This latest proposal from CMS builds on the DFRR forms and process published for comment May 18 in the Federal Register.
Section 5006 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 required CMS to consider the issue of annual disclosure of information pertaining to physician ownership and investment interest in specialty hospitals. CMS reported to Congress in August 2006 that it would require hospitals to provide information on a periodic basis concerning their ownership and investment interests and compensation arrangements with physicians, and a voluntary survey instrument was sent to both specialty and competitor hospitals. Nonresponders to that survey numbered 290 hospitals. The current plan is for the final DFRR to start with that same 290 and add 210 hospitals for a total survey population of 500.
A package of eight worksheets will be required of each hospital, including the following disclosures: direct ownership in the hospital, indirect ownership in the hospital, payments made to the hospital by direct owners, payments made to the hospital by indirect owners, and various compensation arrangements.
CMS will be reminding the recipients of the DFRR of the legal requirements to respond and that penalties of up to $10,000 for each day beyond the deadline are possible.
The Office of Management and Budget will accept comments on the proposed information collection for 30 days before taking action on the CMS request. Read the proposal.
