Drug and Medical Device Makers Paid Docs and Hospitals more than $6B in 2014

Companies that make pharmaceuticals and medical devices paid $6.49 billion to medical providers last year, according to the first full year of data collected through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' "Open Payments" project. The payments include reimbursements for travel and food, stipends for speeches and lectures and compensation for research projects, and recipients include individual doctors as well as hospitals. The data reflects 1,444 companies making payments to 607,000 physicians and 1,121 teaching hospitals. The database allows users to search for specifi...