Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 19;14(12):e32711.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.32711. eCollection 2022 Dec.

The Trend in Industry Payments During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists in the United States

Anju Murayama  1 , Sae Kamamoto  2 , Hiroaki Saito  3 , Tetsuya Tanimoto  4 , Akihiko Ozaki  5
Affiliations

The Trend in Industry Payments During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists in the United States

Anju Murayama et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background Although the sudden coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic would have significantly influenced financial relationships between the healthcare industry and gastroenterologists and hepatologists, little is known about the trend in financial relations in the United States. This study, thus, aimed to examine the trends in industry payments made to gastroenterologists and hepatologists during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods Using the Open Payments Database between 2013 and 2021, we evaluated trends in financial relationships between the healthcare industry and gastroenterologists and hepatologists in the United States. Trends in general payments during the COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated by interrupted time series analysis with monthly and yearly payments at the physician level. Results A total of 16,808 or 89.4% of all active gastroenterologists received general payments totaling $393,823,094 from the pharmaceutical and medical device companies between 2013 and 2021. The payment per gastroenterologist and the number of gastroenterologists receiving payments decreased by 70.9% (95% CI: -73.4% - -68.1%, p<0.001) and by 51.5% (95%CI: -52.2% - -50.7%, p<0.001) due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. However, both payments and the number of physicians with payments have recovered monthly since the COVID-19 pandemic, with relative monthly change rates of 4.1% (95% CI: 3.5% ‒ 4.7%, p<0.001) and 3.2% (95%CI: 3.1% ‒ 3.2%, p<0.001). Additionally, the general payments per gastroenterologist significantly decreased by 2.5% (95%CI: -3.9% - -1.1%, p<0.001) each year before the COVID-19 pandemic, while there was a very small change in the number of gastroenterologists with payments. Conclusions The industry payments to gastroenterologists and hepatologists significantly decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the payments have recovered right after the pandemic in the United States.

Keywords: conflict of interest; covid-19; gastroenterologists and hepatologists; industry payment; open payments database.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared financial relationships, which are detailed in the next section.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Monthly general payments per physician and number of gastroenterologists and hepatologists with payments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
A: Trend in the monthly general payments per gastroenterologist and hepatologist before and during the COVID-19 pandemic; B: Trend in the monthly number of gastroenterologists and hepatologists receiving general payments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Assessment of pharmaceutical company and device manufacturer payments to gastroenterologists and their participation in clinical practice guideline panels. Nusrat S, Syed T, Nusrat S, Chen S, Chen WJ, Bielefeldt K. JAMA Netw Open. 2018;1:0. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Evaluation of industry relationships among authors of clinical practice guidelines in gastroenterology. Combs TR, Scott J, Jorski A, Heavener T, Vassar M. JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178:1711–1712. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Are clinical practice guidelines for hepatitis C by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and Infectious Diseases Society of America evidence based? Financial conflicts of interest and assessment of quality of evidence and strength of recommendations (Letter to the Editor) Murayama A, Ozaki A, Saito H, Sawano T, Tanimoto T. https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hep.32262. Hepatology. 2022;75:1052–1054. - PubMed
    1. Changes in industry marketing payments to physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: quasi experimental, difference-in-difference study. Inoue K, Figueroa JF, Kondo N, Tsugawa Y. BMJ Medicine. 2022;1:219. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series studies in medication use research. Wagner AK, Soumerai SB, Zhang F, Ross-Degnan D. J Clin Pharm Ther. 2002;27:299–309. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources