Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
ISSN
0028-4793
Publisher
Massachusetts Medical Society
Language
en-US
Abstract
Some states have mandated systematic public disclosure of payments made by drug- and device-makers to health care practitioners. We used Massachusetts data to characterize the distribution of payment types and the variation among medical specialties.
The 30 months’ of data included 32,227 reported payments to 11,734 Massachusetts physicians, for a total of $76.7 million. The most common form of payment was food. Compensation for bona fide services was the payment type with the highest value.
We found that 25% of currently licensed Massachusetts physicians received at least one payment during the study period. Prevalence ranged by specialties from pediatricians (12%) and family practitioners (21%) to urologists (61%) and gastroenterologists (57%). The highest average per-physician amounts were received by orthopedic surgeons ($18,446) and physicians in various specialties within internal medicine, including endocrinology ($17,407), infectious diseases ($15,922), and pulmonology ($13,027). The policy implications are briefly discussed.
Recommended Citation
Christopher Robertson,
Distributions of Industry Payments to Massachusetts Physicians
,
in
368
New England Journal of Medicine
2049
(2013).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1744
Comments
From The New England Journal of Medicine, Christopher T. Robertson, Distributions of Industry Payments to Massachusetts Physicians, Volume 368, Page 2049 Copyright ©(2013) Massachusetts Medical Society. Reprinted with permission.