Pain Medicine: industry payments
Drug and device makers reported $92,299,981 in payments to providers registered in this specialty across Open Payments program years 2019–2025.
- Providers
- 6,736
- Received a payment
- 6,724 (99.8%)
- Total reported
- $92.3M
- Average, those paid
- $13,727
The average is computed only over providers who received something, because including the 12 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 pain medicine clinicians
Across 5,079 pain medicine clinicians who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $946,744,635 in total — an average of $186,404 each, of which $179,586 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 840 | $16,096,677 | $19,163 |
| Texas | 583 | $7,486,247 | $12,841 |
| New York | 503 | $6,379,647 | $12,683 |
| Illinois | 233 | $5,161,656 | $22,153 |
| Florida | 596 | $4,961,696 | $8,325 |
| Ohio | 245 | $4,235,198 | $17,287 |
| North Carolina | 182 | $4,002,009 | $21,989 |
| New Jersey | 256 | $3,969,152 | $15,504 |
| Pennsylvania | 294 | $3,021,255 | $10,276 |
| Arizona | 180 | $2,688,441 | $14,936 |
| Massachusetts | 137 | $2,615,730 | $19,093 |
| Indiana | 128 | $2,578,063 | $20,141 |
| Kansas | 64 | $2,422,664 | $37,854 |
| Wisconsin | 82 | $2,376,737 | $28,985 |
| Maryland | 144 | $1,850,075 | $12,848 |
| Nevada | 101 | $1,594,985 | $15,792 |
| Utah | 61 | $1,573,653 | $25,798 |
| Washington | 124 | $1,330,841 | $10,733 |
| Michigan | 139 | $1,263,851 | $9,092 |
| Kentucky | 90 | $1,245,392 | $13,838 |
| Tennessee | 112 | $1,223,141 | $10,921 |
| Colorado | 96 | $1,154,389 | $12,025 |
| Oregon | 57 | $1,113,995 | $19,544 |
| Georgia | 203 | $995,795 | $4,905 |
| Virginia | 150 | $940,268 | $6,268 |
| South Carolina | 92 | $927,235 | $10,079 |
| Minnesota | 88 | $901,668 | $10,246 |
| Missouri | 124 | $861,345 | $6,946 |
| Louisiana | 97 | $811,995 | $8,371 |
| Connecticut | 69 | $805,213 | $11,670 |
| Puerto Rico | 46 | $699,847 | $15,214 |
| Oklahoma | 68 | $677,850 | $9,968 |
| Idaho | 32 | $641,477 | $20,046 |
| Delaware | 31 | $521,113 | $16,810 |
| District of Columbia | 13 | $407,636 | $31,357 |
| Iowa | 31 | $399,725 | $12,894 |
| Arkansas | 53 | $379,001 | $7,151 |
| Mississippi | 48 | $342,182 | $7,129 |
| Alabama | 77 | $312,660 | $4,061 |
| Nebraska | 31 | $263,255 | $8,492 |
| New Hampshire | 38 | $213,662 | $5,623 |
| West Virginia | 35 | $199,490 | $5,700 |
| Hawaii | 16 | $137,581 | $8,599 |
| New Mexico | 36 | $133,845 | $3,718 |
| Alaska | 20 | $101,803 | $5,090 |
| South Dakota | 15 | $81,068 | $5,405 |
| North Dakota | 10 | $53,790 | $5,379 |
| Maine | 20 | $45,665 | $2,283 |
| Montana | 15 | $35,572 | $2,371 |
| Rhode Island | 9 | $21,475 | $2,386 |
| Wyoming | 6 | $16,816 | $2,803 |
| AE | 4 | $9,004 | $2,251 |
| Vermont | 7 | $8,686 | $1,241 |
| AA | 1 | $1,834 | $1,834 |
| AP | 2 | $28 | $14 |