Follow the money: pharmaceutical manufacturer payments and opioid prescribing patterns in New York State

Follow the money: pharmaceutical manufacturer payments and opioid prescribing patterns in New York State

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Contributor(s):
New York State Health Foundation, issuing body.
Publication:
New York, NY : New York State Health Foundation, June 2018
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Analgesics, Opioid
Drug Industry
Inappropriate Prescribing
Practice Patterns, Physicians'
Conflict of Interest
United States
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
Key Findings. (1) More than $3.5 million in opioid-related payments were made to physicians in New York State by pharmaceutical companies; about one in ten physicians who prescribed opioids to Medicare patients received a payment. (2) Physicians who received payments from opioid manufacturers prescribed more opioids to Medicare patients than physicians who did not receive any opioid-related payments. (3) Moreover, a higher number of opioid prescriptions was associated with more opioid-related payments to physicians. (4) Opioid-related payments from industry were concentrated within a small proportion of physicians, who tended to prescribe a large quantity of opioids. The top 1% of physicians in New York, in terms of the amount received in opioid-related payments, received more than 80% of total payments. (5) Opioid-related payments may lead to an increase in opioid prescribing, based on comparisons with a matched group of similar physicians who did not receive any opioid-related payments. (6) While these results cannot determine the appropriateness of opioid prescribing, they add to a growing body of research raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest resulting from certain physician and industry financial relationships. Further monitoring of physician-industry relationships is needed and additional limitations on them should be considered.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (27 pages))
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
101770919 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101770919