• Elliot Morse, Jonathan Hanna, and Saral Mehra.
• Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
• Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2019 Oct 1; 161 (4): 605-612.

ObjectiveTo associate pharmaceutical industry payments to brand-name prescriptions by otolaryngologists.Study DesignRetrospective cross-sectional analysis.SettingOpen Payments Database and the Medicare Part D Participant User File 2013-2016.Subjects And MethodsWe identified otolaryngologists receiving nonresearch industry payments and prescribing to Medicare Part D recipients. Records were linked by physician name and state. The value of industry payments and the percentage of brand-name drugs prescribed per hospital referral region (HRR) were characterized as medians. Industry payments were correlated to the rate of brand-name prescription by Kendall's τ correlation. This was repeated at the individual physician level and stratified by payment type.ResultsIn total, 8167 otolaryngologists received a median of $434 (interquartile range, $138-$1278) in industry compensation over 11 (3-26) payments. Brand-name drugs made up a median of 12.9% (8.6%-18-4%) of each physician's drug claims. The number (τ = 0.05, P < .001) and dollar amount (τ = 0.04, P < .001) of industry payments were correlated with the rate of brand-name drug prescription at the individual physician level. The number of industry payments was also associated with the rate of brand-name prescription by HRR (τ = 0.14, P < .001), but the dollar amount was not. By HRR, food and beverage payments received by physicians were associated with the rate of brand-name drug prescription (τ = 0.04, P < .001), but travel and lodging payments were not.ConclusionsIndustry financial transactions are associated with brand-name drug prescriptions in otolaryngologists, and these associations are stronger at the regional level than at the individual physician level. These correlations are of modest strength and should be interpreted cautiously by readers.

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