Drug Company Payments to Doctors Linked to Higher Pimavanserin Prescribing, Medicare Costs

Higher physician payments from drug manufacturer Acadia for Nuplazid (pimavanserin) are associated with increased pimavanserin prescription volume and Medicare costs, astudyin Psychiatric Services in Advance has found. Pimavanserin is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson ’s disease psychosis. Physician payments include payments for speaking, consulting, education, food, travel, and lodging.“Our study adds to the growing evidence of the association between pharmaceutical industry payments to physicians and physician prescribing,” wrote Hemalkumar B. Mehta, M.S., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and colleagues.The researchers analyzed 2016 and 2017 data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments database and the CMS Part D Prescriber Public Use Files. The Open Payments database contains information on financial payments made by drug and medical device companies to physicians and teaching hospitals. The Part D prescriber data provide information on physician specialties and which drugs they prescribe to Medicare Part D beneficiaries.The researchers found that physicians receiving payments wrote 46% more prescriptions for pimavanserin than those who did not receive payments, and their total prescriptions were 71% more costly to Medicare, totaling a median of $66,311 compared with a median of $38,716 for those who did not receive ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS Hemalkumar Mehta Nuplazid Open Payments Part D Prescriber Public Use Files pimavanserin Psychiatrc Services Source Type: research