Payments from drug companies to physicians are associated with higher volume and more expensive opioid analgesic prescribing.

ABSTRACT:

Background

While the rise in opioid analgesic prescribing and overdose deaths was multifactorial, financial relationships between opioid drug manufacturers and physicians may be one important factor.

Methods

Using national data from 2013 to 2015, we conducted a retrospective cohort study linking the Open Payments database and Medicare Part D drug utilization data. We created two cohorts of physicians, those receiving opioid-related payments in 2014 and 2015, but not in 2013, and those receiving opioid-related payments in 2015 but not in 2013 and 2014. Our main outcome measures were expenditures on filled prescriptions, daily doses filled, and expenditures per daily dose. For each cohort, we created a comparison group that did not receive an opioid-related payment in any year

SUBMITTER: Zezza MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6300290 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature