Obesity Medicine: industry payments
Drug and device makers reported $4,699,666 in payments to providers registered in this specialty across Open Payments program years 2019–2025.
- Providers
- 287
- Received a payment
- 285 (99.3%)
- Total reported
- $4.7M
- Average, those paid
- $16,490
The average is computed only over providers who received something, because including the 2 who received nothing would produce a number that describes neither group. Totals are dominated by a small number of large royalty and consulting arrangements; the typical payment in this specialty is far smaller than the average implies.
What Medicare pays obesity medicine clinicians
Across 170 obesity medicine clinicians who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $6,381,566 in total — an average of $37,539 each, of which $36,914 was for services and the rest for drugs administered in the office.
This is not a salary. The rest is what Medicare allowed for services these clinicians billed — Original Medicare fee-for-service only. It excludes Medicare Advantage, which now covers more than half of Medicare enrollees, along with Medicaid and every commercial insurer, so for most clinicians it is a fraction of their practice. It is also gross revenue: staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums all come out of it before anyone is paid. Anyone quoting a figure like this as physician pay is misreading it.
By state
| State | Providers | Total reported | Per provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 14 | $696,418 | $49,744 |
| New York | 14 | $663,107 | $47,365 |
| Texas | 17 | $452,942 | $26,644 |
| Massachusetts | 15 | $405,633 | $27,042 |
| Florida | 21 | $301,314 | $14,348 |
| Ohio | 15 | $292,822 | $19,521 |
| Virginia | 13 | $262,039 | $20,157 |
| Arizona | 5 | $214,115 | $42,823 |
| Georgia | 7 | $214,067 | $30,581 |
| Tennessee | 5 | $193,019 | $38,604 |
| Indiana | 8 | $190,146 | $23,768 |
| New Jersey | 8 | $144,453 | $18,057 |
| California | 23 | $141,684 | $6,160 |
| Pennsylvania | 17 | $138,221 | $8,131 |
| Illinois | 14 | $100,409 | $7,172 |
| Mississippi | 2 | $79,846 | $39,923 |
| Missouri | 8 | $41,099 | $5,137 |
| Vermont | 1 | $19,582 | $19,582 |
| Colorado | 5 | $18,813 | $3,763 |
| Maine | 2 | $17,895 | $8,947 |
| Washington | 7 | $15,647 | $2,235 |
| Kansas | 5 | $14,322 | $2,864 |
| Michigan | 5 | $14,210 | $2,842 |
| Connecticut | 7 | $12,409 | $1,773 |
| West Virginia | 4 | $11,153 | $2,788 |
| Maryland | 4 | $9,891 | $2,473 |
| Utah | 3 | $6,669 | $2,223 |
| New Mexico | 1 | $5,232 | $5,232 |
| New Hampshire | 5 | $4,281 | $856 |
| Iowa | 2 | $2,819 | $1,409 |
| Wisconsin | 4 | $2,816 | $704 |
| South Carolina | 4 | $2,806 | $702 |
| Puerto Rico | 3 | $2,203 | $734 |
| Louisiana | 5 | $1,972 | $394 |
| Kentucky | 4 | $1,232 | $308 |
| Oregon | 1 | $1,182 | $1,182 |
| Oklahoma | 1 | $980 | $980 |
| Alaska | 1 | $796 | $796 |
| South Dakota | 1 | $421 | $421 |
| Nevada | 1 | $401 | $401 |
| Delaware | 1 | $313 | $313 |
| Minnesota | 2 | $162 | $81 |
| Hawaii | 1 | $79 | $79 |
| Montana | 1 | $46 | $46 |