Forty medical device companies paid out a collective $872.3 million to hospitals and doctors last year, including $652.7 million in general payments and $219.6 million in research grants, according to the Open Payments database compiled by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service.
The Open Payments program, created under the Affordable Care Act with the aim of improving transparency, requires device and drug manufacturers to report payments to healthcare providers for things like speaking engagements about their products and research grants. General payments can include such costs as travel and lodging and food and beverages.
The report, in its 2nd year, lists 11.4 million payments to 607,000 physicians and more than 1,100 teaching hospitals made by 1,444 companies. U.S. doctors and research hospitals collected nearly $6.5 billion in payments for services rendered to medical device and pharmaceutical companies in 2014.
Not surprisingly, the world’s largest medtech makers topped the list of medical device companies. Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) reported dropping $133.4 million in general payments and another $56.5 million in research grants, for a total of $189.9 million (21.8% of the total for the 40 companies). Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) said it paid out $102.6 million to docs and hospitals and $32.5 million in research grants, for a total of $135.0 million or 15.5% of the total. Third up was Stryker (NYSE:SYK), reporting general payments of $73.1 million and research grants of $5.7 million, for a total of $78.8 million or 9.0% of the total.
Here’s a look at how the payments broke down for 40 of the largest medical device makers:
| Company | General | Research | Total |
| Medtronic | $133,435,541 | $56,505,542 | $189,941,083 |
| Johnson & Johnson | $102,557,688 | $32,459,001 | $135,016,690 |
| Stryker | $73,135,901 | $5,689,436 | $78,825,337 |
| Zimmer | $50,781,224 | $2,945,652 | $53,726,876 |
| St. Jude Medical | $46,314,531 | $7,293,312 | $53,607,843 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | $6,846,746 | $44,028,352 | $50,875,097 |
| Boston Scientific | $26,269,132 | $18,405,660 | $44,674,792 |
| Smith & Nephew | $41,802,547 | $2,462,420 | $44,264,967 |
| Intuitive Surgical | $29,107,086 | $377,273 | $29,484,359 |
| Alcon (Novartis) | $20,794,876 | $3,438,723 | $24,233,599 |
| Abbott | $11,892,686 | $12,272,052 | $24,164,738 |
| NuVasive | $22,175,132 | $484,018 | $22,659,150 |
| Bayer HealthCare | $10,950,400 | $11,174,438 | $22,124,838 |
| Baxter | $6,989,791 | $6,224,416 | $13,214,207 |
| Siemens Healthcare | $11,397,626 | $1,492,400 | $12,890,027 |
| Wright Medical | $12,092,697 | $108,085 | $12,200,782 |
| GE Healthcare | $5,749,565 | $4,630,828 | $10,380,393 |
| B. Braun | $6,361,682 | $1,021,123 | $7,382,805 |
| C.R. Bard | $6,549,118 | $775,866 | $7,324,984 |
| Philips Electronics North America | $3,975,923 | $2,134,861 | $6,110,784 |
| Olympus | $4,596,710 | $1,273,247 | $5,869,957 |
| Orthofix | $4,093,068 | $398,724 | $4,491,792 |
| HeartWare | $1,561,116 | $1,664,084 | $3,225,200 |
| Fujifilm | $2,455,951 | $104,837 | $2,560,789 |
| Masimo | $2,433,149 | n/a | $2,433,149 |
| Thoratec | $1,161,293 | $198,195 | $1,359,488 |
| 3M | $1,256,137 | $103,195 | $1,359,332 |
| Fresenius | $613,005 | $449,368 | $1,062,373 |
| Getinge (Maquet) | $1,004,645 | $31,790 | $1,036,434 |
| Toshiba Medical | $619,766 | $401,163 | $1,020,929 |
| Cardinal Health | $961,630 | n/a | $961,630 |
| Terumo | $616,991 | $156,302 | $773,293 |
| Accuray | $252,499 | $336,817 | $589,316 |
| NxStage Medical | $461,153 | $82,360 | $543,513 |
| Insulet | $528,430 | n/a | $528,430 |
| Arthrocare | $418,620 | $35,389 | $454,009 |
| ResMed | $99,271 | $319,076 | $418,346 |
| Greatbatch | $213,018 | n/a | $213,018 |
| Beckman Coulter (Danaher) | $102,271 | $100,000 | $202,271 |
| Hitachi | $70,436 | n/a | $70,436 |
Material from Reuters was used in this report.
