Thursday, July 6, 2017

Drug and device makers pay providers $8 billion in 2016

By Virgil Dickson  | July 5, 2017

Payments from drug and device companies to physicians and teaching hospitals hit more than $8 billion in 2016.

The CMS released the third full year of Open Payments data on Friday. The disclosure is required by the Sunshine Act, a provision of the Affordable Care Act, as an effort to help the public learn about payments received by doctors from industry groups and how those payments could affect clinical care.

All told, nearly 631,000 physicians and approximately 1,146 teaching hospitals received $8.18 billion in payments and ownership and investment interests in 2016, according to tallies compiled by the CMS. Last year's total was $7.52 billion.

About half of the overall payments were for research and $2.7 billion were in payments not related to research. A little more than $1 billion stemmed from ownership or investment interests.

Physicians and teaching hospitals have an opportunity to review and dispute the data reported by drug and device companies and as of now only $39 million, less than 5% in payouts, is being questioned by providers.

Of the largest pharmaceutical companies, Allergan paid out the most in 2016 with $66 million in total payments. Dr. George Patrick Maxwell, a plastic surgeon in Nashville, is listed as the highest payment recipient from Allergan, with $4.6 million.

Celgene was the second-highest spender with a total of $54 million in payments last year. Of its recipients, Boston oncologist Dr. Kenneth C. Anderson a took in the most, with $1.9 million.

Virgil Dickson reports from Washington on the federal regulatory agencies. His experience before joining Modern Healthcare in 2013 includes serving as the Washington-based correspondent for PRWeek and as an editor/reporter for FDA News. Dickson earned a bachelor's degree from DePaul University in 2007.


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