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A survey of nearly 2000 people suggests many Americans may not know if their physician receives industry payments.
A majority of the individuals surveyed were treated by a doctor who received some form of industry payment in the last year, but few of the patients were aware of these payments.
In fact, more than half of the patients did not know that accepting industry payments is something physicians may do.
“The findings suggest that although physicians who accept industry payments are in the minority, they are caring for a very substantial portion of America’s adult patient population,” said Genevieve Pham-Kanter, PhD, of Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She and her colleagues reported these findings in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Since 2013, the Sunshine Act, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has required pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to report gifts and payments they make to healthcare providers. This information is publicly available on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Open Payments website.
Dr Pham-Kanter and her colleagues conducted their survey shortly before the first release of the Open Payments data in September 2014. However, payment data were already publicly available in certain states, nationwide via the Pro Publica website, and through disclosures made by pharmaceutical and medical device firms themselves (who had been required to release payment information as part of legal settlements or did so voluntarily).
Survey results
The researchers conducted their online survey in 3542 adults. Respondents were asked whether they were aware of industry payments and to name the physicians they had seen most frequently in the previous year.
Physician names were then linked to the Open Payment data to ascertain how often patients saw doctors who accepted industry payments.
There were 1987 respondents who could be matched to a specific physician. Sixty-five percent of these individuals had visited a physician who accepted an industry payment in the last 12 months, but only 5% of the respondents actually knew if their doctors received industry payments.
Forty-five percent of respondents said they knew about the practice of doctors receiving industry payments, and 12% said information about such payments was publicly available.
“These findings tell us that if you thought that your doctor was not receiving any money from industry, you’re most likely mistaken,” Dr Pham-Kanter said. “Patients should be aware of the incentives that their physicians face that may lead them to not always act in their patients’ best interest.”
In Open Payments, all physicians averaged $193 in yearly payments and gifts. But when measuring only the doctors visited by participants in the survey, the median payment amount over the last year was $510, more than 2.5 times the US average.
“We may be lulled into thinking this isn’t a big deal because the average payment amount across all doctors is low,” Dr Pham-Kanter said. “But that obscures the fact that most people are seeing doctors who receive the largest payments.”
“Drug companies have long known that even small gifts to physicians can be influential,” added study author Michelle Mello, JD, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Law School in California. “And research validates the notion that they tend to induce feelings of reciprocity.” 
A survey of nearly 2000 people suggests many Americans may not know if their physician receives industry payments.
A majority of the individuals surveyed were treated by a doctor who received some form of industry payment in the last year, but few of the patients were aware of these payments.
In fact, more than half of the patients did not know that accepting industry payments is something physicians may do.
“The findings suggest that although physicians who accept industry payments are in the minority, they are caring for a very substantial portion of America’s adult patient population,” said Genevieve Pham-Kanter, PhD, of Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She and her colleagues reported these findings in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Since 2013, the Sunshine Act, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has required pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to report gifts and payments they make to healthcare providers. This information is publicly available on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Open Payments website.
Dr Pham-Kanter and her colleagues conducted their survey shortly before the first release of the Open Payments data in September 2014. However, payment data were already publicly available in certain states, nationwide via the Pro Publica website, and through disclosures made by pharmaceutical and medical device firms themselves (who had been required to release payment information as part of legal settlements or did so voluntarily).
Survey results
The researchers conducted their online survey in 3542 adults. Respondents were asked whether they were aware of industry payments and to name the physicians they had seen most frequently in the previous year.
Physician names were then linked to the Open Payment data to ascertain how often patients saw doctors who accepted industry payments.
There were 1987 respondents who could be matched to a specific physician. Sixty-five percent of these individuals had visited a physician who accepted an industry payment in the last 12 months, but only 5% of the respondents actually knew if their doctors received industry payments.
Forty-five percent of respondents said they knew about the practice of doctors receiving industry payments, and 12% said information about such payments was publicly available.
“These findings tell us that if you thought that your doctor was not receiving any money from industry, you’re most likely mistaken,” Dr Pham-Kanter said. “Patients should be aware of the incentives that their physicians face that may lead them to not always act in their patients’ best interest.”
In Open Payments, all physicians averaged $193 in yearly payments and gifts. But when measuring only the doctors visited by participants in the survey, the median payment amount over the last year was $510, more than 2.5 times the US average.
“We may be lulled into thinking this isn’t a big deal because the average payment amount across all doctors is low,” Dr Pham-Kanter said. “But that obscures the fact that most people are seeing doctors who receive the largest payments.”
“Drug companies have long known that even small gifts to physicians can be influential,” added study author Michelle Mello, JD, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Law School in California. “And research validates the notion that they tend to induce feelings of reciprocity.”
A survey of nearly 2000 people suggests many Americans may not know if their physician receives industry payments.
A majority of the individuals surveyed were treated by a doctor who received some form of industry payment in the last year, but few of the patients were aware of these payments.
In fact, more than half of the patients did not know that accepting industry payments is something physicians may do.
“The findings suggest that although physicians who accept industry payments are in the minority, they are caring for a very substantial portion of America’s adult patient population,” said Genevieve Pham-Kanter, PhD, of Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She and her colleagues reported these findings in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Since 2013, the Sunshine Act, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has required pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to report gifts and payments they make to healthcare providers. This information is publicly available on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Open Payments website.
Dr Pham-Kanter and her colleagues conducted their survey shortly before the first release of the Open Payments data in September 2014. However, payment data were already publicly available in certain states, nationwide via the Pro Publica website, and through disclosures made by pharmaceutical and medical device firms themselves (who had been required to release payment information as part of legal settlements or did so voluntarily).
Survey results
The researchers conducted their online survey in 3542 adults. Respondents were asked whether they were aware of industry payments and to name the physicians they had seen most frequently in the previous year.
Physician names were then linked to the Open Payment data to ascertain how often patients saw doctors who accepted industry payments.
There were 1987 respondents who could be matched to a specific physician. Sixty-five percent of these individuals had visited a physician who accepted an industry payment in the last 12 months, but only 5% of the respondents actually knew if their doctors received industry payments.
Forty-five percent of respondents said they knew about the practice of doctors receiving industry payments, and 12% said information about such payments was publicly available.
“These findings tell us that if you thought that your doctor was not receiving any money from industry, you’re most likely mistaken,” Dr Pham-Kanter said. “Patients should be aware of the incentives that their physicians face that may lead them to not always act in their patients’ best interest.”
In Open Payments, all physicians averaged $193 in yearly payments and gifts. But when measuring only the doctors visited by participants in the survey, the median payment amount over the last year was $510, more than 2.5 times the US average.
“We may be lulled into thinking this isn’t a big deal because the average payment amount across all doctors is low,” Dr Pham-Kanter said. “But that obscures the fact that most people are seeing doctors who receive the largest payments.”
“Drug companies have long known that even small gifts to physicians can be influential,” added study author Michelle Mello, JD, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Law School in California. “And research validates the notion that they tend to induce feelings of reciprocity.”