Introduction: OpenPayments is a federal program created through the Sunshine Act that was founded to create greater transparency of the financial incentives that health care providers receive from manufacturers and Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO). The purpose of this study was the evaluation of the publicly available OpenPayments Research Payments dataset from 2014 to 2018 to examine the economic impact of these payments in Urology, as well as identify any possible trends over time.
Methods: The first full five years (2014-2018) of OpenPayments Research Payments dataset was examined for payments where the Clinical Primary Investigator identified their Specialty as Urology. The following data was extracted: number of payments, dollar value, share of research payments over time, trends in research payments, and payments stratified by state/payer/primary product. Descriptive Statistics, Chi-Square Tests, and Cochran-Armitage Tests for Trend were used for analysis.
Results: During the first five years, a total of 29,293 undisputed Research Payments were made to 900 Urologists for a total of $164.65 million US Dollars. A small proportion of payments were made to Female Pelvic Medicine (0.32%), Pediatric Urologists (3.68%), and Preclinical Research activities (0.35%). Only 12.02% of payments were affiliated with a Teaching Hospital while only 22.84% were connected to a Registered Clinical Trial. Most payments were in the form of cash/cash equivalents (84.09%) as opposed to items/services (15.91%). Overall, Urologists were significantly more likely to receive payments through cash/cash equivalents than non-urologists (84.09% vs 80.52%) and Urologist payments were less likely to be associated with Preclinical Research than Non-Urologist payments (0.35% vs 1.41%) (both P = <0.0001). The proportion of research payments to Urologists as a total of all Research payments significantly increased from 0.62% in 2014 to 1.18% in 2018 (P = < 0.0001). The Inflation-Adjusted Value of Payments to Urologists also increased from $29.57 million in 2014 to $38.15 million in 2018 (P = < 0.0001).
Conclusions: The evaluation shows that research payments to Urology providers play a role in funding Urology Research. The majority of payments are in the form of cash/cash equivalents, are unaffiliated with teaching hospitals, not for Preclinical Research, and are not related to a registered clinical trial. As payments to Urologists have demonstrated an increase over this five-year period, Urologists should remain aware of the role Industry funding plays in the field of Urology Research. Source of
