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

BACKGROUND: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physician relationships with industry and subsequent financial implications has not been previously assessed. The aim of this study is to compare pre- and post-COVID-19 payments between industry and medical providers for all plastic surgeons. METHODS: Payment information was collected for the 2019 and 2020 reporting periods from the Open Payments Program (OPP) database for plastic surgeons and plastic surgeon subspecialists. An analysis was performed of trends and comparison of payments for each year for all plastic surgeons and each subspecialty cohort. RESULTS: For all plastic surgeons, there was a decrease in industry payments between 2019 and 2020 (− 30.5%). All plastic surgery subspecialties had a decrease in payments with general plastic and reconstructive surgery affected the most (− 56%) and craniofacial surgery affected the least (− 9%). Payments for almost all categories for plastic surgeons decreased along with compensation as faculty or as speakers. Total charitable contributions and grant payments increased by 61 and 273%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Analysis of industry–physician payments available through the Sunshine Act shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted industry payments to plastic surgery and its subspecialties. While this study demonstrates the economic impact of the current pandemic, only time will tell whether these trends will persist in the coming years. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.