Researchers scrutinized 2.4 million physician payments totaling $475 million made during the last five months of 2013.
Here are five points:
1. The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, passed under the ACA, requires all pharmaceutical and medical device companies to report payments to physicians, including consulting fees, gifts, speaking fees, meals, travel and research grants.
2. This information is searchable to the public on a database called Open Payments, which is managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medical Services.
3. Internal medicine and orthopedic surgery received the greatest total value at $111 million each.
4. The highest proportion of physicians receiving payments was seen among cardiovascular and neurosurgical specialists.
5. Orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery had the greatest mean value of general payments per physician.
More articles on coding and billing:
6 eye surgery code reimbursement changes in 2016 — All decline
Medicare enrollees pay more at critical access hospitals: 5 things to know
Picwell raises $3M for healthcare decision support tools — 4 highlights
