Drug, medical device makers paid doctors $6.49 billion in 2014
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published the 2014 Open Payments data about transfers of value by drug and medical device makers to health care providers. The data includes information about 11.4 million financial transactions attributed to over 600,000 physicians and more than 1,100 teaching hospitals, totaling $6.49 billion.
The Open Payments program, created by the Affordable Care Act, requires drug and device manufacturers to report transfers of value (i.e., payments, honoraria or research grants) to health care providers, as well as other industry-related investments providers may have.
Renal Companies at a glance
The data is searchable by company, hospital, and physician. Most of these companies are involved in manufacturing and developing renal products, as well as other products.
Amgen Inc.
- Total General Payments: $18,255,602.14
- Total General Transactions: 144,264
- Total Research Payments:$65,161,410.33
- Total Research Transactions:4,306
Baxter Healthcare
- Total General Payments: $6,989,791.39
- Total General Transactions: 28,716
- Total Research Payments: $6,224,416.07
- Total Research Transactions: 1,151
NxStage Medical Inc.
- Total Research Payments: $6,224,416.07
- Total Research Transactions: 1,151
- Total Research Payments: $82,359.84
- Total Research Transactions: 25
Genzyme Corporation
- Total General Payments: $18,340,822.55
- Total General Transactions: 39,790
- Total Research Payments: $3,458,180.73
- Total Research Transactions: 430
The program relies on voluntary participation by physicians and teaching hospitals to review the information submitted by these companies. Registered physicians and teaching hospitals reviewed nearly 30% of the total value of the reported data. The financial data available through Open Payments was submitted by applicable drug and device manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations. The accuracy of all data included in Open Payments reporting is attested to by the submitting manufacturer or GPO.
CMS says its role is to facilitate discussion and analysis of the data by making it publicly available for consumers and researchers.
The agency said it was able to validate that 98.8% of all records submitted in the Open Payments system contained accurate identifying information about the associated covered recipient. Records that could not be verified to align to an individual covered recipient were rejected and were not processed by the system. -by Rebecca Zumoff