Am J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg | Volume 5, Issue 10 | Short Communication | Open Access

Trend in Industry Payments to Otolaryngologists in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Seven- Year Analysis of the Open Payments Database from 2014 to 2020

Kamamoto S^1,2, Murayama A^1,3*, Saito H^1,4, Yamashita E¹, Tanimoto T^1,5 and Ozaki A^1,6

¹Medical Governance Research Institute, Japan ²Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Japan ³Tohoku University School of Medicine, Japan ⁴Department of Gastroenterology, Sendai Kousei Hospital, Japan ⁵Department of Internal Medicine, Navitas Clinic Tachikawa, Japan ⁶Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Jyoban Hospital, Japan

^*Correspondance to: Murayama A 

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Abstract

The Open Payments Database, a legal-binding transparency was initiated in 2010 in the United States, and since then, an increasing trend in the industry payments to otolaryngologists was observed a few years after the enactment. This study evaluated the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trend in non-research payments to otolaryngologists in the United States between January 2014 and December 2020. A total of 12,618 otolaryngologists received 55,067 general payments totaling $80,019,175 between 2014 and 2020. The payments per physician and the number of physicians receiving payments declined by -63.3% (95% Confidence Interval [95% CI]: -70.1% – -55.0%, p<0.001) and -63.7% (95% CI: -64.8% – -62.5%, p<0.001) at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively, while there was a recovery trend of 6.4% (95% CI: 5.9%‒6.9%, p<0.001) monthly increase in number of physicians receiving payments.

Keywords:

COVID-19; Poisson distribution; Otolaryngologists

Citation:

Kamamoto S, Murayama A, Saito H, Yamashita E, Tanimoto T, Ozaki A. Trend in Industry Payments to Otolaryngologists in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Seven-Year Analysis of the Open Payments Database from 2014 to 2020. Am J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2022;5(10):1217.