Open Payments Apps Help Healthcare Professionals Track Reporting On The Go

Mar 6, 2014

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is bringing lots of change to the traditional healthcare landscape as practitioners and healthcare companies gear up for an influx of patient demand. There are also changes to the way healthcare companies and doctors will track and report reimbursements.

And not only is the healthcare changing but also are the mobile habits of healthcare practitioners — especially doctors. According to InformationWeek, 86% of physicians and “mid-level” clinicians now use smartphones in their professional activities, up from 78% in 2012.

Enter the Open Payments Program, launched in 2013 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), that offers two companion mobile apps. This “national disclosure program,” created under an ACA provision, shines a light on the payments reporting process and the business relationships among physicians, teaching hospitals and industry manufacturers, such as medical device-makers. According to CMS.gov, “Open Payments is necessary to:

  • Encourage transparency of reporting financial ties;
  • Reveal the nature and extent of relationships;
  • Prevent inappropriate influence on research, education, and clinical decision-making;
  • Avoid conflicts of interest that can compromise clinical integrity and patient care; and
  • Minimize risk of increased health care costs.”

The Open Payments for Physicians app screen.

Without getting too wonky, the Open Payments Program app for Physiciansenables doctors to ensure that the data reported about them by medical industry is correct and to track payments and transactions in real time. Because the heath care industry and manufacturers are responsible for official reporting of said payments, transactions and business relationships, the Open Payments Program app for Industry offers companies a similar real-time payments tracking feature as well as a repository for collecting up-to-date physician profile information, among other features.

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Is all this talk a bit too in the weeds for you? Well, just skip straight to the apps to see how it all comes together. The Open Payments apps for Physicians and for Industry are available for iOS and Android devices.

Stop searching and save time! You can also download other mobile government apps with just a few clicks from our USA.gov Apps Gallery.

Mar 6, 2014