Table 2. Industry Payments and Ownership Interests by Specialty Category, United States Physicians in 2015.
| All Physiciansa | Specialty Category, No. (%) | P Valueb | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (N = 933 295) | Surgery (n = 181 372) |
Primary Care (n = 431 819) |
Specialists (n = 221 255) |
Interventionalists (n = 98 849) |
||
| All payments | 449 864 | 110 829 | 206 473 | 78 498 | 54 064 | |
| General paymentsc | ||||||
| Physician recipients | 448 694 | 110 604 (61.9) | 205 830 (47.7) | 78 274 (35.4) | 53 986 (54.6) | |
| General payments | 10 232 314 | 1 455 096 (14.2) | 5 696 193 (55.7) | 1 524 961 (14.9) | 1 556 064 (15.2) | |
| Value of payments, US $ | 1 771 544 617 | 760 807 951 (43.0) | 458 429 902 (25.9) | 293 690 371 (16.6) | 258 626 392 (14.6) | |
| Annual per-physician general payment, median (IQR)d | ||||||
| No. of payments | 6 (2-22) | 6 (2-16) | 6 (2-27) | 4 (1-17) | 9 (2-39) | <.001 |
| Payments, US $ | 201.27 (59.98-781.96) |
242.24 (84.4-883.7) |
179.08 (52.4-682.8) |
150.00 (44.0-621.8) |
323.80 (79.8-1296.3) |
<.001 |
| Research paymentsc | ||||||
| Physician recipients | 6373 | 1565 (0.9) | 2810 (0.7) | 1158 (0.5) | 840 (0.9) | |
| Research payments | 41 940 | 7158 (17.1) | 20 745 (49.5) | 8859 (21.1) | 5178 (12.3) | |
| Value of payments, US $ | 75 116 830 | 15 161 922 (20.2) | 34 504 622 (45.9) | 17 610 782 (23.4) | 7 839 504 (10.4) | |
| Ownership interestsc | ||||||
| Physicians with ownership interests | 3302 | 1627 (0.9) | 1286 (0.3) | 214 (0.1) | 175 (0.2) | |
| Ownership interests | 3552 | 1804 (50.8) | 1302 (36.7) | 238 (6.7) | 208 (5.9) | |
| Value invested, US $ | 164 940 439e | 94 369 925 (57.2) | 20 663 836 (12.5) | 18 464 383 (11.2) | 31 442 296 (19.1) | |
| Value of interest, US $ | 544 088 091 | 215 791 588 (39.7) | 29 374 310 (5.4) | 227 208 740 (41.8) | 71 713 453 (13.2) | |
Abbreviation: IQR, interquartile range.
a
Percent of all physicians within that specialty analyzed in National Plan and Provider Enumeration System.
b
Reported P values are comparing proportions across specialty categories using the Kruskal-Wallis test, 2-sided.
c
Percent of total number or value of all general or research payments and ownership interests.
d
Calculation based on only physicians receiving general payments.
e
Total value invested was not included in the overall sum of total payment value to physicians ($2.4 billion) to avoid double counting for ownership interests in 2015.