Healthcare Data GlossaryRegulatory
Open Payments: Definition and Healthcare Context
Full name: CMS Open Payments Program
CMS Open Payments is a national disclosure program established by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act that collects and publishes information about financial relationships between drug and device manufacturers and applicable physicians, teaching hospitals, and other health care providers. Manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) report payments and transfers of value — including consulting fees, research grants, meals, travel, and royalties — to CMS annually. Open Payments data is publicly searchable at openpaymentsdata.cms.gov.
Last updated: 2026-06-17Reviewed by: Dr. Jennifer Montecillo, MD — Gullas College of Medicine, 2019. Non-practicing medical reviewer.
How it’s used
- CMS Open Payments: Fonteum ingests annual Open Payments data to surface physician financial disclosures on provider profiles, keyed to NPI.
- Physician Payments Sunshine Act (Section 6002, ACA): the Sunshine Act is the statutory mandate behind Open Payments, the reporting requirement Fonteum's disclosure data rests on.
- Fonteum Open Payments research: Fonteum publishes original studies on the Open Payments file — including ownership-interest concentration — built from the same annual public-use data.
Frequently asked questions
- What is CMS Open Payments?
- Open Payments is a CMS transparency program that discloses financial relationships between health care manufacturers, GPOs, and physicians or teaching hospitals.
- What types of payments are reported in Open Payments?
- Reported transfers include consulting fees, research grants, speaker honoraria, meals, travel, entertainment, royalties, and other items of value.
- Is Open Payments data public?
- Yes. All collected Open Payments data is publicly searchable and downloadable at openpaymentsdata.cms.gov.