New Study on Physician-Industry Relationships, This Time Focused on Ophthalmologists

This study, published by JAMA Ophthalmology, compared the use of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) intravitreal injections by United States ophthalmologists to industry payments those same physicians received. Once again, the authors behind the study acknowledged that “Although the data can’t confirm a cause and effect, [they] found a positive association between reported pharmaceutical payments and increased use of drugs prescribed to treat problems of the retina.” This study reviewed data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2013 Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data: Physician and Other Supplier Public Use File and the CMS-sponsored August through December 2013 Open Payments Program. Ophthalmologists who prescribe anti-VEGF injections for all indications were analyzed. The findings of the study were that a total of 3011 United States ophthalmologists were reimbursed by CMS for 2.2 million anti-VEGF injections in 2013 and, of those physicians, 38% reportedly received $1.3 million in industry payments for ranibizumab and aflibercept. According to the authors, further analysis “revealed positive associations between increasing numbers of reported industry payments and total injection use, aflibercept and ranibizumab injection use, and percentage of injections per physician that were aflibercept or ranibizumab.” Additionally, subgroup analysis further revealed that physicians who received between $1 and $25 in reported i...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs