The Open Payments system is once again available for physicians and teaching hospitals to register, review and dispute financial interaction information received from healthcare manufacturers and group purchasing organizations, according to an announcement from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The news comes after the system went offline last week for the organization to investigate a reported error. Questions arose about the database after a ProPublica investigation found a Kentucky doctor was listed as receiving payments from a drugmaker, when in reality, the drugmaker paid a different doctor by the same name in Florida, FiercePracticeManagement previously reported. "CMS takes data integrity very seriously and took swift action after a physician reported a problem," said CMS Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Program Integrity Shantanu Agrawal, M.D. "We have identified the root cause of the problem and have instituted a system fix to prevent similar errors." To account for system down time, CMS is extending the time for physicians and teaching hospitals to review their records to Sept. 8, with the public launch of data still slated for Sept. 30. Announcement