Financial Ties Between Emergency Physicians and Industry: Insights From Open Payments Data

Area of Science:

• Medical Economics
• Physician Payments
• Pharmaceutical Industry

Background:

• The Open Payments program mandates reporting of financial relationships between medical product companies and healthcare providers.
• Understanding these financial flows is crucial for transparency in the healthcare industry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze non-research, non-royalty payments made to emergency physicians in the United States.
• To identify the types of payments and associated products involved.

Main Methods:

• Descriptive analysis of the 2014 Open Payments data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
• Calculation of median payments, total pay per physician, payment types, and associated drugs/devices.
• Comparison with payment data across other medical specialties.

Main Results:

• 46,405 payments totaling $10,693,310 were made to 12,883 emergency physicians (30% of active physicians).
• Median payment was $16, median total pay was $44; 83% of payments were under $100.
• Food and beverage constituted 86% of payments; common associated drugs included rivaroxaban and apixaban.

Conclusions:

• Approximately one-third of emergency physicians received industry payments in 2014.
• The majority of these payments were small in value and linked to the marketing of antithrombotic medications.