Doctors' 'conflict of interest' database gets delayed

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will delay publicly launching a new database intended to disclose potential conflicts of interest among physicians. The agency's Open Payments System lists payments from drug and medical device makers to doctors. It was supposed to have gone public on Sept. 30 after doctors had been given a chance to dispute any information on it by Aug. 27. However, the agency released a statement Thursday noting that the database "has been taken offline temporarily to investigate a reported issue" and physicians won't be able to review their data on the site until it is fixed.