How much do the world's biggest medtech companies pay physicians?

[Image from Jp Valery on Unsplash]

The top 50 medical device companies in the world paid physicians and teaching hospitals $690.3 million last year in general payments, according to an analysis of Medical Design and Outsourcing‘s Big 100 and CMS Open Payments data.

Medtech companies averaged $17.3 million in general payments to doctors last year, spending an average of 0.2% of their annual revenues.

Zimmer Biomet topped the list with $109.4 million in general payments to doctors and hospitals. Of that number, 23,982 physicians received $72.5 million and 364 hospitals received $36.9 million. The payments were 1.3% of its annual revenue.

The company with the least number of payments was Owens & Minor, which doled out $23,600 in general payments in 2018. Of that number, $600 went toward food and beverage costs to 29 physicians. The remaining $23,000 was spent on charitable contributions to four teaching hospitals in the U.S.

General payments to physicians and teaching hospitals are payments that are not associated with research studies. The payments are broken up into a number of categories, including royalty or license, consulting fees, travel and lodging, food and beverage, education, gift, compensation for services other than consulting and more. Read more about how much money the top 10 companies spent in each category.

Here is a list of how much the top 50 medical device companies in the world spent on general payments to physicians and teaching hospitals. Hover over starred(*) items to see additional notes.