Industry Payments to Plastic Surgeons, 2013 to 2018: Who’s Getting Paid?

Abstract

Background:The Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2010 mandated that all industry payments to physicians be publicly disclosed. To date, industry support of plastic surgeons has not been longitudinally characterized. The authors seek to evaluate payment trends from 2013 to 2018 and characteristics across plastic surgeon recipients of industry payments. Methods: The authors cross-referenced those in the 2019 American Society of Plastic Surgeons member database with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Open Payments database physician profile identification number indicating industry funds received within the study period. We categorized surgeons by years since American Board of Plastic Surgery certification, practice region, and academic affiliation. Results: A sum of $89,436,100 (247,614 payments) was received by 3855 plastic surgeons. The top 1 percent of earners (n = 39) by dollar amount received 52 percent of industry dollars to plastic surgeons; of these, nine (23 percent) were academic. Overall, 428 surgeons (11 percent) were academic and received comparable dollar amounts from industry as their nonacademic counterparts. Neither geographic location nor years of experience were independent predictors of payments received. The majority of individual transactions were for food and beverage, whereas the majority of industry dollars were typically for royalties or license. Conclusions: Over half of all industry dollars transferred went to just 1 percent of American Society of Plastic Surgeons members receiving payments between 2013 and 2018. Considerable heterogeneity exists when accounting for payment subcategories.

Plastic Surgeons and their Financial Relationships with the Industry in the era of COVID: Insights from the Physician Payments Sunshine Act

“…Based on these financial implications, we hypothesized that industry payments to plastic surgeons would also be negatively impacted by the pandemic, similar to other financial strains faced by plastic surgeons due to COVID-19. The public reporting of payments made by industry to physicians has previously been used as a tool to study trends and provide insight on industry-provider relationships in the field of plastic surgery [7,8]. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on industry payments to plastic surgeons has not been previously reported.…”

Discussion: Do Corporate Payments Influence Research Related to the Use of Acellular Dermal Matrices in Breast Surgery?

“…Our specialty is awash in corporate lucre. Two recent publications 2,3 have provided in detail the magnitude of the totals under description. The amounts are staggering.…”

“…One-half of corporate payments were and are directed toward 1% ( n = 39) of plastic surgeons. 3 If one should question the validity of a link between the marketing desires of said corporations and the direction of the flow of funds, listen to the president of the corporation that marketed the SPY device in the embryonic stage of fluorescein angiography.…”

Industry Funding Among Physician Editorial Board Members of Plastic Surgery Journals

“…Median compensation to all plastic surgeons is provided from previously published data where available. 3 Stratified by journal, magnitudes of median payments increased for seven editorial boards from 2015 to 2021 (Table 3).…”