Who Paid My Doc
Guide ยท Updated 14 September 2026
General payments, research payments and ownership interests: what is the difference?
General payments are things like consulting fees, meals and travel; research payments fund a specific study; and ownership interests are stakes a doctor holds in a company — three different kinds of money that should never be added into one total.
General payments
CMS defines these as payments or other transfers of value “not made in connection with a research agreement.” This is the category most people picture: consulting fees, fees for speaking at an education event, meals, travel and lodging, gifts, honoraria, royalties and licence fees, grants and charitable contributions. Each record carries a nature of payment that says what it was for.
General payments range from a single sandwich at a lunch meeting to a large royalty on a device a surgeon helped design, so the size of the figure and what it was for matter far more than the fact that a record exists.
Research payments
These are payments “made in connection with a research agreement” — funding for a specific study, often a clinical trial. Two things make them read differently from general payments:
- The money often goes to an institution. A hospital, university or research organisation usually receives it, even when a doctor is named on the study.
- Being named is not being paid. A doctor listed as a principal investigator has not necessarily received the money personally.
Ownership and investment interests
This is not a payment at all. It is a stake — stock, stock options, partnership shares or a limited liability company membership — that a physician or an immediate family member held in a reporting company during the year. The figure is what the stake was reported to be worth. Dividends from publicly traded shares and mutual funds are excluded.
Why the three are never added together
A meal, a clinical trial grant and a shareholding follow different reporting rules and mean different things. Adding them produces a number that describes nothing a reader can use, and it can make a doctor who runs a large trial look as though they pocketed millions. That is why this site never shows a combined total, and why any figure attributed to us that combines them is a misreading.
For program year 2025, the three kinds side by side:
| Kind | Reported value | Records |
|---|---|---|
| General payments | $3.9 billion | 16,131,856 |
| Research payments | $9.5 billion | 931,959 |
| Ownership interests | $1.3 billion | 2,646 |
Research money is far larger in value but spread over far fewer records than general payments — one more reason the two cannot be compared as if they were the same thing.
How to read a doctor's page with this in mind
- Look at general payments and their natures to see consulting, speaking, meals and travel.
- Treat research funding as support for studies, much of it paid to institutions.
- Treat ownership as a holding, not income.
- Always note the program year: figures change when CMS republishes.
Common questions
Can I add general and research payments together?
It is best not to. They are different kinds of money reported under different rules, and research funding often goes to an institution rather than to the doctor, so a combined figure is misleading.
Does a research payment mean the doctor was paid personally?
Not necessarily. Research payments are often made to a hospital, university or research organisation, and a doctor named as a principal investigator may not have received the money.
Is an ownership interest income?
No. It is the reported value of a stake, such as stock, stock options or a partnership share, held by the doctor or an immediate family member in a reporting company.
Look it up yourself
More guides
All guidesCheck if your doctor gets paid by drug companies
Look up any U.S. doctor in the federal Open Payments record in under a minute: what to search, how to find the right person, and how to read what you see.
What is Open Payments?
Open Payments is the federal database of money that drug and device companies report paying to doctors and teaching hospitals. What it is, where it came from, and what is in it.
Does a payment mean wrongdoing?
A listing in Open Payments is not an accusation. Why these payments are legal and common, what they can and cannot tell you, and how to read them fairly.
What counts as a payment?
The categories drug and device companies must report — from food and beverage to consulting, speaking, royalties and travel — and the things they do not have to report.