CMS Open Payments Scraper (Sunshine Act)

Extract pharma and medical device company payments to US physicians and teaching hospitals from the official CMS Open Payments database (Sunshine Act). Retrieve general payments, research funding, and ownership interests — no login required.

What data you get

Each record includes:

Field	Description
paymentType	general, research, or ownership
programYear	Calendar year of the payment (2018–2024)
recipientName	Full name of the physician or teaching hospital
recipientType	Covered Recipient Physician / Non-Physician Practitioner / Teaching Hospital
recipientNpi	National Provider Identifier (physicians)
recipientCity	City of the recipient
recipientState	US state code (2-letter)
recipientZip	ZIP code
recipientCountry	Country
recipientSpecialties	List of medical specialties
manufacturerName	Company making the payment
manufacturerState	Manufacturer's state
manufacturerCountry	Manufacturer's country
totalAmountUsd	Total payment amount in USD
numberOfPayments	Number of payments included in the total
formOfPayment	Cash, in-kind, etc.
natureOfPayment	Consulting fee, honoraria, travel, food, education, etc.
associatedProducts	Drug/device names associated with the payment
travelDestination	City, state, country for travel payments
nameOfStudy	Research study name (research payments)
clinicalTrialGovUrl	ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (research payments)
natureOfInterest	Type of ownership interest (ownership payments)
disputeStatus	Whether the record is disputed
scrapedAt	ISO-8601 timestamp of scrape

Use cases

• Healthcare transparency research — track which companies pay which doctors and how much
• Compliance monitoring — audit payments to physicians in your organization or specialty
• Investigative journalism — follow the money between pharma companies and healthcare providers
• Academic research — analyze industry influence on prescribing patterns
• Business intelligence — identify key opinion leaders and consulting relationships

Input parameters

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
paymentType	Yes	general	Category: general, research, or ownership
programYear	Yes	2024	Year of data: 2018–2024
recipientState	No	all	Filter by 2-letter US state code
recipientType	No	all	Filter by physician, non-physician, or entity
natureOfPayment	No	all	Filter by payment category (consulting fee, honoraria, etc.)
manufacturerName	No	—	Partial match on manufacturer name (e.g., Pfizer)
minAmountUsd	No	—	Minimum payment amount in USD
maxItems	No	100	Maximum records to return (up to 10,000)

Example input

{
  "paymentType": "general",
  "programYear": "2024",
  "recipientState": "TX",
  "natureOfPayment": "Consulting Fee",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example output record

{
  "paymentType": "general",
  "recordId": "12345678",
  "programYear": "2024",
  "paymentDate": "2024-03-15",
  "recipientName": "DONALD A GRIFFITH MD",
  "recipientType": "Covered Recipient Physician",
  "recipientNpi": "1821102930",
  "recipientCity": "HOUSTON",
  "recipientState": "TX",
  "recipientZip": "77030",
  "recipientCountry": "United States",
  "recipientSpecialties": ["Allopathic & Osteopathic Physicians|Urology"],
  "manufacturerName": "Pfizer Inc.",
  "manufacturerState": "NY",
  "manufacturerCountry": "United States",
  "totalAmountUsd": 1500.00,
  "numberOfPayments": "1",
  "formOfPayment": "Cash or cash equivalent",
  "natureOfPayment": "Consulting Fee",
  "associatedProducts": ["VIAGRA"],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-04T00:00:00+00:00"
}

Data source

Data is sourced directly from the CMS Open Payments database at openpaymentsdata.cms.gov, published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (Section 6002 of the Affordable Care Act). The data is public, free, and requires no API key.

Coverage: 2018–2024 (updated annually). The 2024 program year data was published in 2025.

FAQ

Does this require an API key or registration? No. CMS Open Payments data is fully public and requires no authentication.

How current is the data? Data is published annually. The most recent available is the 2024 program year (published mid-2025). Use programYear to select the desired year.

What is the difference between payment types?

• General — includes meals, consulting fees, honoraria, speaking fees, travel, gifts, and education
• Research — funding for clinical trials and research studies paid to organizations or investigators
• Ownership — stock, investment interests, or compensation for ownership stakes

Can I filter by specific company? Yes. Use the manufacturerName field with a partial company name (e.g., Pfizer, Medtronic, Johnson).

How many records are available? The 2024 general payments dataset alone contains millions of records. Use state, specialty, or manufacturer filters to narrow results.

Is this data reliable? Yes. Companies are legally required to report these payments under the Sunshine Act. Penalties apply for non-disclosure or inaccurate reporting.