Open Payments Database

Open Payments Database Notice

We provide this notice so our patients know the federal Open Payments database exists and know how to use it.

What Open Payments Is

Open Payments is a national disclosure program run by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. It was created by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, passed by Congress in 2010. Reporting began in 2013.

The law requires manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, and biologics to report any payment or transfer of value worth more than about ten dollars made to a physician or a teaching hospital. CMS publishes that data in a free, searchable public database.

Congress did not prohibit these payments. It required that they be visible.

Why You Might Want to Look

Financial ties between industry and medicine are ordinary and often necessary. They are also worth knowing about. A patient advised to consider a particular stent, device, or medication may reasonably want to know whether the physician recommending it has a financial relationship with the company that makes it.

Looking is not an accusation. The database exists so that you can check without having to ask.

What Gets Reported

• Consulting and speaking fees for advising, lecturing, or serving on a panel
• Research payments, including funding for clinical trials
• Food and beverage, often a modest meal at an educational program
• Travel and lodging for a meeting or device training
• Education, including textbooks and journal reprints
• Royalties, licensing, grants, and gifts
• Ownership or investment interest held by a physician or immediate family member

What the Numbers Do and Do Not Mean

An entry means one thing. A manufacturer reported a payment or transfer of value.

It does not mean the payment was improper, or that the physician was paid to prescribe or implant anything. Much of the database is meals at conferences and travel to training on a new device. Physicians who teach, lecture, or run clinical trials show larger totals, because that work is compensated.

The data has limits. Manufacturers submit it, and entries are sometimes attributed to the wrong physician, especially with common names. Treat what you find as a starting point for a conversation with your doctor, not as a verdict.

Look Up Any Physician

Search the federal database yourself, free and without an account:

https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/

You can search by physician name, by city or state, or by manufacturer. Results cover all physicians and teaching hospitals nationwide.

Ask Us

If you have a question about anything you find, ask. Call the Bonita office at (619) 585-0476 or the Redding office at (530) 433-5427.