Drug, Device Company Payments to Doctors Drop in 2017 (1)

Drug and device manufacturers eased back on their payments to physicians and teaching hospitals in 2017.

The companies spent a combined $8.4 billion on physicians and teaching hospitals, a drop of about 4.5 percent compared with the 2016 total of $8.8 billion, according to payment data released June 29 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Open Payments program, created by a physician payments “sunshine” provision of the Affordable Care Act, is intended to give the public a look at the financial relationships between industry and physicians. Under Open Payments, drug and device manufacturers report all payments they ...