title: Financial Ties Between Emergency Physicians and Industry: Insights From Open Payments Data.
abstract: The Open Payments program requires reporting of payments by medical product companies to teaching hospitals and licensed physicians. We seek to describe nonresearch, nonroyalty payments made to emergency physicians in the United States.
  
  
  
  We performed a descriptive analysis of the most recent Open Payments data released to the public by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services covering the 2014 calendar year. We calculated the median payment, the total pay per physician, the types of payments, and the drugs and devices associated with payments to emergency physicians. For context, we also calculated total pay per physician and the percentage of active physicians receiving payments for all specialties.
  
  
  
  There were 46,405 payments totaling $10,693,310 to 12,883 emergency physicians, representing 30% of active emergency physicians in 2013. The percentage of active physicians within a specialty who received a payment ranged from 14.6% in preventive medicine to 91% in orthopedic surgery. The median payment and median total pay to emergency physicians were $16 (interquartile range $12 to $68) and $44 (interquartile range $16 to $123), respectively. The majority of payments (83%) were less than $100. Food and beverage (86%) was the most frequent type of payment. The most common products associated with payments to emergency physicians were rivaroxaban, apixaban, ticagrelor, ceftaroline, canagliflozin, dabigatran, and alteplase.
  
  
  
  Nearly a third of emergency physicians received nonresearch, nonroyalty payments from industry in 2014. Most payments were of small monetary value and for activities related to the marketing of antithrombotic drugs.
authors.affiliation: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Electronic address: wf3@buffalo.edu.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fleischman
authors.affiliation: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT; Center for Outcomes Research, Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Joseph S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Edward R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Melnick
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT; Center for Outcomes Research, Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Arjun K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Venkatesh
mesh_terms: D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D030881:Disclosure / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics; D004470:Economics, Medical; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000191:economics*; D037921:Gift Giving; D007221:Industry / Q000191:economics*; D008511:Medicine; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D010820:Physicians / Q000191:economics*; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms; D014481:United States