CMS released Open Payments data for 2015.
CMS' Open Payments program requires that physicians and teaching hospital report payments as well as ownership and investment interests from drug, device, biologics and medical supply companies, which are then published on a public website.
Here are five notes from the 2015 data set:
1. Healthcare industry manufacturers and companies reported $7.52 billion in payments as well as ownership and investment interests to physicians and teaching hospitals.
2. The amount is comprised of 11.90 million total transaction records, which can be attributed to 618,931 physicians and 1,116 teaching hospitals.
3. There are three categories of payments:
• $2.60 billion in general payments (i.e. non-research related)
• $3.89 billion in research payments
• $1.03 billion of ownership or investment interests held by physicians or their immediate family members
4. Around 2.26 percent of all financial transactions between physicians and pharmaceutical companies were related to opioid medications.
5. The 2015 data set represents the second full year of data available on the CMS Open Payments website.