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.
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