Public Medicine: industry payments
Drug and device makers reported $6,046 in payments to providers registered in this specialty across Open Payments program years 2019–2025.
- Providers
- 5
- Received a payment
- 5 (100.0%)
- Total reported
- $6K
- Average, those paid
- $1,209
The average is computed only over providers who received something, because including the 0 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 public medicine clinicians
Across 2 public medicine clinicians who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $148,643 in total — an average of $74,322 each, of which $74,301 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 2 | $3,444 | $1,722 |
| Texas | 1 | $1,377 | $1,377 |
| Alabama | 1 | $1,006 | $1,006 |
| New York | 1 | $219 | $219 |