CMS Publishes Program Year 2019 Open Payments Data

On June 30^th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published Open Payments Program Year 2019 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 transparency program that collects and publishes information about financial relationships between the health care industry (i.e. drug and device companies) and providers (i.e. physicians and teaching hospitals). These relationships may involve payments to providers for things such as research, meals, travel, gifts, or speaking fees. One of the ways that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provides data to the public is through the Open Payments search tool, which allows the public to search for physicians and teaching hospitals receiving payments, as well as companies that have made payments.

The purpose of the program is to provide the public with a more transparent healthcare system. All information available on the Open Payments database is open to personal interpretation and if there are questions about the data, healthcare consumers should speak directly to the healthcare provider for a better understanding. More information about the program can be found on the CMS Open Payments website.

For Program Year 2019, CMS published $10.03 billion in payments and ownership and investment interests made by applicable manufacturers and GPOs to physicians and teaching hospitals. This amount is comprised of 10.98 million total records attributable to 614,910 physicians and 1,196 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 2019 are:

• $3.56 billion in general (i.e., non-research related) payments
• $5.23 billion in research payments
• $1.24 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 76.25 million records, accounting for $53.06 billion in payments and ownership and investment interests.

CMS is scheduled to refresh the Open Payments data in early 2021 to reflect updates to the data made since this publication.

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

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