Mining Pharmaceutical Product Data Related to Payment Pattern from the CMS Open Payments Data: A Case Study in Thoracic Surgery.

This study used descriptive statistical analyses to investigate the payment characteristics and to discuss the regularity of highest paying industries. Payments by 4.70% of highest paying industries (N=446) accounted for 85% of the total (US $72,458,304) in 2014-2016. A tiny minority of highest paying industries control the majority of payments. Large payments from these industries are highly associated with few specific products. Furthermore, payment patterns among the industries include concentration and diversification.