CMS’ Publishes Program Year 2018 Open Payments Data

Applicable manufacturers and Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) collectively reported $9.35 billion publishable payments and ownership and investment interests to physicians and teaching hospitals in Program Year 2018. Program Year 2018 accounts for payments or transfers of value made between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018.

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published Open Payments Program Year 2018 data, along with newly submitted and updated payment records for previous program years. The data is accessible at https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/.

Open Payments is a national disclosure program that promotes transparency and accountability by making information about the financial relationships between applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and physicians and teaching hospitals available to the public. Through this program, the public has access to a more transparent and accountable healthcare system.

For Program Year 2018, CMS published $9.35 billion in payments and ownership and investment interests made by applicable manufacturers and GPOs to physicians and teaching hospitals. This amount is comprised of 11.40 million total records attributable to 627,392 physicians and 1,180 teaching hospitals.

Payments are reported in three payment categories: general payments, research payments, and ownership or investment interests. Payments in the three major reporting categories for Program Year 2018 are:

• $3.00 billion in general (i.e., non-research related) payments
• $4.93 billion in research payments
• $1.42 billion of ownership or investment interests held by physicians or their immediate family members

Since the Open Payments program began in 2013, CMS has published 64.77 million records, accounting for $43.22 billion in payments and ownership and investment interests.

CMS is scheduled to refresh the Open Payments data in early 2020 to reflect updates to the data made since this publication.

For more information, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/openPayments

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