726 Changes of Reported Industry Payments to Neurosurgeons Pre- and Post-Covid-19 Epidemic

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Under the Affordable Care Act, the Physcian Patient Sunshine Act was implemented in 2010, providing public transparency of industry relationships with physcians. Open Payments Data (OPD) was released in 2014, and annually since. Payments to Neurosurgeons have been found to be amongst the highest. However, the implications Covid-19 in 2020 had on payments has not been reported. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2021 of the Open Payments Database. Collected data included the total number of industry payments, the aggregate value of industry payments, and the mean value of each industry payment made to neurosurgeons per year over the 5-year period. RESULTS: A total of 7,985 unique neurosurgeons recieved payments, totaling $451,610,410, There was a decreasing trend in the number of Neurosurgeons recieving payments during Covid-19 (2020): 5,478 (2017), 5,286 (2018), 5,146 (2019), 4,330 (2020), and 4,880 (2021). Additionally, there was decline in the total amount of payments made in 2020, compared to the other years: 80,358 (2017), 82,143 (2018), 85,026 (2019), 46,762 (2020), and 67,507 (2021). Among the types of payments, year 2020 was lower than the other years in Food and Beverage, Travel and Lodging, Services other than Consulting, and Eduction. Interestingly, year 2020 had higher number of payments for Consulting Fee and Royalty/License payments compared to pre-Covid-19 years. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that over the 5-year period (2017-2021) of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services OPD, there was decrease in number of Neurosurgeons recieving payments and the number of payments made to Neurosurgeons compared to Pre-Covid. However, 2021 demonstrated an increasing trend similar to Pre-Covid.