Guides
Open Payments is a big, blunt dataset. These explain how to read it without getting it wrong.
What is the Sunshine Act and Open Payments?
The law that made every industry payment to a US doctor a public record — and what it does and does not cover.
The 19 natures of payment, explained
CMS sorts every payment into one of 19 categories. Knowing which is which is the difference between reading the data and misreading it.
Does pharma money change how doctors prescribe?
What the research actually shows, including the strongest arguments on both sides.
Why almost every doctor has food and beverage payments
The single most misunderstood number in Open Payments.
Research payments vs. general payments
The distinction that changes what a large number means.
How to read your doctor’s profile
A short, practical guide to what the numbers on a profile page actually tell you.
What "disputed" means on a payment record
Physicians can formally contest a record. Here is what that flag does and does not mean.
Consulting and speaking fees
The category that draws the most scrutiny, and why.
Royalty and licence payments
A small group of physicians at the very top of the data, for a reason that surprises people.
Ownership and investment interests
The strongest financial tie in the dataset, and the rarest.
Teaching hospitals and industry money
Institutions appear in Open Payments too, and the numbers are large.
Device makers vs. drug makers
Two very different payment patterns hiding inside one dataset.
What Open Payments does not tell you
The limits of this dataset, stated plainly.
For physicians: how to correct your record
You can review and dispute records before and after publication. Here is the process.
The Open Payments data dictionary, in plain English
What each field in the raw federal dataset actually means.