Is Your Doctor Conflicted by Industry Payments When Recommending Treatment? A Government Website and Tim Ferriss' Idea Can Help You Find Out

Before you say yes to a surgery or implant, you may want check one thing: who is paying your surgeon?

There's a free government tool called Open Payments that tracks every payment drug and medical device companies report giving to doctors and teaching hospitals — consulting fees, speaking fees, royalties, ownership, and and more commonly - free meals - lots of them.

Tim Ferriss highlighted it in his 5-Bullet Friday newsletter for a simple reason, captured in Charlie Munger's quote:

"Show me the incentive, and I'll show you the outcome."

How to use it:

1. Spot free agents vs. tied players. A doctor with $0 in payments is free to recommend any treatment. A doctor getting large, recurring payments from one company may be more likely to recommend that company's products.

2. The small stuff adds up. It's startling to see doctors collecting thousands of dollars per year in free lunches and dinners for themselves and their staff. Those meals alone don't make someone a bad doctor, but they show who has their ear.

3. It matters in big decisions. Ferriss shared his own case — choosing between two surgeons. One recommended a conservative, minimal approach and had $0 in tracked payments. The other recommended extensive surgery with implants and had received roughly $1 million from the company that makes those implants.

A payment doesn't mean your doctor is bad. Many top specialists consult because they're experts.

But if a doctor wants to put a specific device in your body, you deserve to know if they are paid by the company that makes it — whether it's $1M in royalties or $5K in catered lunches.

Links:

Open Payments Data: https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov

Tim Ferriss - 5-Bullet Friday: https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-1/