CMS Open Payments Search (Sunshine Act)

Search the CMS Open Payments database for pharmaceutical and medical device industry payments to physicians and teaching hospitals. Access 14.7M+ payment records from 2018 through 2024. Filter by physician NPI, name, company, state, specialty, payment type, and amount. No API key required.

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Data Source

CMS Open Payments API (openpaymentsdata.cms.gov). Mandated by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, this federal database requires pharmaceutical and medical device companies to report all payments and transfers of value made to covered recipients.

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Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
recordID	string	Unique payment record identifier
recipientType	string	Covered Recipient Physician or Teaching Hospital
recipientNPI	string	Physician National Provider Identifier
recipientFirstName	string	Physician first name
recipientLastName	string	Physician last name
recipientCity	string	Recipient city
recipientState	string	Recipient state
recipientPrimaryType	string	Credential type (MD, DO, etc.)
recipientSpecialty	string	Physician specialty
teachingHospitalName	string	Teaching hospital name (when applicable)
manufacturerName	string	Paying company name
manufacturerState	string	Paying company state
paymentAmount	string	Payment amount in USD
dateOfPayment	string	Date of payment
formOfPayment	string	Form of payment (cash, in-kind, etc.)
natureOfPayment	string	Payment category (consulting fee, food, travel, research, etc.)
productCategory1	string	Related product category
productName1	string	Related drug or device name
programYear	string	Reporting year

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Use Cases

• Pharmaceutical competitive intelligence -- identify which physicians a competitor is engaging, what they are paying, and for what products.
• KOL (Key Opinion Leader) mapping -- find physicians receiving the highest industry payments in a specialty or geography for targeting or competitive analysis.
• Compliance and conflict-of-interest screening -- verify payment relationships for healthcare organizations, publishers, or regulators.
• Investigative journalism and research -- analyze industry spending patterns by company, specialty, payment type, or geography.
• Healthcare sales prospecting -- identify physicians with existing relationships in a therapeutic area.
• Market access analysis -- map pharma engagement activity around specific drugs or product categories.

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How to Use

Set the input fields and run the actor. Results are pushed to the Apify dataset and can be exported as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchType	string	search	search to filter by multiple criteria, or npi for direct physician lookup
physicianNPI	string		National Provider Identifier for direct physician lookup
physicianName	string		Physician last name (partial match)
manufacturer	string		Company name (partial match, e.g., Pfizer, Medtronic)
state	string		Recipient state abbreviation (e.g., CA, TX, NY)
specialty	string		Physician specialty (partial match, e.g., Cardiology, Orthop)
natureOfPayment	string		Payment category (e.g., Consulting Fee, Food and Beverage, Research)
minAmount	string		Minimum payment amount in USD (e.g., 1000)
programYear	string	2023	Reporting year (2018-2024)
maxResults	integer	100	Maximum records to return (1-10000)

Example -- Payments from a Specific Company

{
  "searchType": "search",
  "manufacturer": "Pfizer",
  "programYear": "2023",
  "maxResults": 500
}

Example -- Consulting Fees to Cardiologists in California

{
  "searchType": "search",
  "state": "CA",
  "specialty": "Cardiology",
  "natureOfPayment": "Consulting Fee",
  "minAmount": "5000",
  "programYear": "2023",
  "maxResults": 200
}

Example -- All Payments to a Specific Physician by NPI

{
  "searchType": "npi",
  "physicianNPI": "1234567890",
  "programYear": "2023",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Available Payment Types

Food and Beverage, Consulting Fee, Travel and Lodging, Education, Honoraria, Research, Royalty or License, Grant, Gift, Entertainment, Charitable Contribution

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Cost

• Actor start fee: ~$0.10 per run
• Compute: minimal -- typical runs complete in seconds
• Data cost: $0.005 per result

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Output Formats

Results are available in the Apify dataset viewer and can be exported as:

• JSON
• CSV
• Excel (XLSX)
• XML
• RSS

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FAQ

Do I need a CMS account or API key? No. The CMS Open Payments API is publicly accessible with no authentication required.

What years are covered? The database covers reporting years 2018 through 2024. Each year must be queried separately using the programYear field.

Does this include research payments? Yes. Research payments to physicians and teaching hospitals are included in the database and can be filtered using natureOfPayment: "Research".

What is the NPI? The National Provider Identifier is a unique 10-digit identifier assigned to all healthcare providers in the US. It is stable and consistent across federal healthcare datasets.

Are teaching hospital payments included? Yes. The recipientType field distinguishes between physician payments and teaching hospital payments. Payments to teaching hospitals include the teachingHospitalName field rather than individual physician details.

Is this data legally usable for commercial purposes? Open Payments data is published by the federal government as a public resource. There are no restrictions on the underlying data. Review applicable laws and regulations for your specific use case.

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