The Association between Industry Payments and Brand-Name Prescriptions in Otolaryngologists

Objective To associate pharmaceutical industry payments to brand-name prescriptions by otolaryngologists. Study Design Retrospective cross-sectional analysis. Setting Open Payments Database and the Medicare Part D Participant User File 2013-2016. Subjects and Methods We 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 tau correlation. This was repeated at the individual physician level and stratified by payment type. Results In 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 (tau = 0.05, P < .001) and dollar amount (tau = 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 (tau = 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 (tau = 0.04, P < .001), but travel and lodging payments were not. Conclusions Industry 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.