Cardiologists earned $1B in industry payments in 6 years: 7 notes

Cardiologists received more than $1 billion in speaker fees, consultation fees and other industry payments from 2014 to 2019, a study found.

The study, published March 17 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, linked Open Payments Program data with information from the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System database. Overall, cardiologists received $1.1 billion, although the total value of those payments fell from $210 million in 2014 to $164 million in 2019.

Here are six other findings:

1. Researchers found 40.8 percent of payments were tied to speaker fees while 19 percent were consultation fees.
   
   
2. Speaker fees dropped significantly from 2014 ($114 million) to 2019 (approximately $54,000).
   
   
3. Consultation fees increased from $29 million in 2014 to more than $33 million in 2019.
   
   
4. The third-largest category was food- and beverage-related payments, which saw minimal change.
   
   
5. Most cardiologists (76 percent) received small payments of less than $10,000 each per year. Meanwhile, 0.3 percent of cardiologists received more than $1 million each per year.
   
   
6. The number of cardiologists receiving payments slightly increased between 2014 and 2019, going from 25,989 cardiologists to 26,536.