The OIG watches as physicians come into the sunshine

From international law firm Arnold & Porter LLP comes a timely column that provides views on current regulatory and legislative topics that weigh on the minds of today’s physicians and health care executives.Publication of data for the first full year of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act has now been made. Although the Sunshine Act was promoted as a way to ensure transparency to allow patients the ability to understand the financial relationships between their physicians and industry, it has been widely predicted that these data also would serve as a source for data mining by government enforcers. The recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) Work Plan Mid-Year Update suggests that this speculation is correct. In particular, the OIG has added a new item to its Work Plan — a review of financial interests reported under the Open Payments program. Specifically, the OIG entry reads as follows: