Researchers studied the association between pharmaceutical company payments to physicians and physician prescribing patterns, according to a study published in The BMJ.
The cross sectional analysis of 2013 and 2014 Open Payments and Medicare Part D prescribing data involved 306 hospital referral regions. Researchers examined 45.95 million Medicare Part D prescriptions written by 623,886 physicians to 10.51 million patients. The prescriptions included oral anticoagulants and non-insulin diabetes drugs.
Here are seven observations:
1. The study found in the 306 hospital referral regions, pharmaceutical manufacturers made 977,407 payments to physicians related to oral anticoagulants. These payments totaled $61.02 million.
2. Pharmaceutical manufacturers made 1.79 million payments to physicians related to non-insulin diabetes drugs, totaling $108.42 million.
3. The study found the hospital referral regions' median market share to be 21.6 percent for marketed oral anticoagulants and 12.6 percent for marketed non-insulin diabetes drugs.
4. Researchers found payments to specialists correlated with greater prescribing of marketed drugs compared to payments to non-specialists.
5. Payments for speaker and consulting fees for non-insulin diabetes drugs correlated with a higher rate of prescribing marketed drugs, compared to payments for food and beverages or educational materials.
6. The researchers concluded pharmaceutical company payments to physicians "were associated with greater regional prescribing of marketed drugs among Medicare Part D beneficiaries," according to the study.
7. The researchers noted, however, they did not prove causation between payments to physicians and increased prescribing.
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