Be confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsDeliver custom or industry designed product training directly to patient and resident care environments to reinforce proper use.
View All ProductsHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsStop wasting money on RCM issues. Learn how to Provide your team with expert-led revenue cycle training to help them reduce denied claims, reimbursement mistakes, and more.
View All ProductsTackle all the challenges of provider directory management within a health plan with a single solution tailored to your specific needs.
View All ProductsOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsFinally, a comprehensive resource to support collecting, storing, and sharing credentialing data with ease.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
View All ProductsLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
View All ProductsMitigate risk and elevate your quality of care. Improving both clinical and business outcomes starts with a smarter, more integrated approach to regulatory training, continuing education and quality management.
Learn MoreBy Kevin Kovalsky, COI Product Manager, Compliance Solutions, HealthStream and Bill Sacks, Vice President, COI Product Management, HealthStream
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a new trove of payment data on June 30, 2017. Since 2013, the “Open Payments” database, created under the Affordable Care Act, has been used to collect and publish information about payments from medical device and drug companies to physicians and teaching hospitals. All payments above $10.00 are reported in various categories, including speaking fees, travel, research, gifts, and meals.
Under the theory that “Sunshine is the best disinfectant”, the hope was that publishing detailed information about industry payments to physicians would have a prophylactic effect on potential conflicts of interest. There was speculation that some physicians would stop taking money from big pharma if they had to answer questions about those payments from skeptical patients. Perhaps payments would be funneled more directly into research, rather than to physicians themselves?
So what does the latest data show? What kinds of trends can be seen? While it is difficult to draw conclusions based on the year to year fluctuations in payment data, we can begin to see trends by analyzing the data over three years.
What the Data Tells Us
The total dollar value of reported payments from industry has increased slightly, to $8.18 billion in 2016 from $8.09 billion in 2015 and $7.86 billion in 2014. In each of those years, more than 50% of all dollars went to research. Interestingly, the number of companies making payments dropped by more than 6%, from 1,614 in 2014 to 1,481 in 2016. Since few companies completely stop payments to physicians once they have started, this raises some interesting questions about consolidation in the industry. At the same time, the number of physicians accepting payments stayed level, dropping by a fraction from 632,000 in 2015 to 631,000 in 2016.
While total payments directed to research increased by 7.1% from 2014 to 2016, the amount paid directly to physicians for research decreased by 7.1%, from more than $102 million in 2014 to $95 million in 2016. From 2014 to 2016, general (non-research) payments to physicians also saw a slight decline, from $2.11 billion in 2014 to $2.07 billion in 2016.
While some have expressed concern at the 6.0% year to year jump in payments to physicians classified as “ownership or investment interests” (from $962 million in 2015 to more than $1.0 billion in 2016), the three-year trend is negative, with an overall 8.1% decline from 2014 to 2016.
While it is too early to tell if these trends will continue, it is clear that while the Open Payments database has not adversely affected the overall funding of industry research, it may be causing some physicians to take fewer direct payments, which could reduce, in some small way, the potential for conflicts of interest in medicine.
Learn more about HCCS solutions related to the Open Payments Database and managing conflicts of interest.When you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and healthcare training solutions support medical training initiatives and allow for the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsUtilize patient access solutions and advanced reimbursement solutions to manage clinical denials and improve your organization’s reimbursement strategy.
View All ReimbursementComprehensive, industry-leading provider onboarding and credentialing software that validates health outcomes and supports provider assessment.
View All CredentialingOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
View All ProductsExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All SchedulingHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
View All Products