CMS recently published Open Payments data for 2016, which shows payments from drug and device companies to physicians and teaching hospitals increased last year.
The Open Payments Program requires drug and device manufacturers to report payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals for research, travel, food and beverage, lodging, licenses and investments.
Here are five takeaways from the 2016 Open Payments data.
1. Drug and device companies made a total of $8.18 billion in payments to physicians and teaching hospitals in 2016.
2. Payments from pharmaceutical companies and device makers to clinicians and teaching hospitals increased by $90 million from 2015 to 2016.
3. Of the total payments to clinicians and teaching hospitals, research payments represented $4.36 billion, more than any other category of payments. General payments, such as drug representative meals, travel expenses and consulting fees, made up $2.8 billion of the payments, and the other $1.02 billion was allocated to ownership or investment interests.
4. There are 631,000 physicians and 1,146 teaching hospitals with payment records for 2016.
5. CMS updated its website to allow users to compare specific physicians to a national average and to others within their specialty. Additionally, website visitors can see payments received by physicians in each state.