In 2019, U.S. pharmaceutical companies paid $3.6 billion to physicians in the form of gifts to promote their drugs. To curb inappropriate financial relationships between health care providers and firms, several state laws require firms to publicly declare the payments they make to physicians. In 2013, this disclosure law was rolled out to all 50 states. The authors investigate the causal impact of this increased transparency on subsequent payments between firms and physicians. While firms and physicians were informed of the disclosure regulation at data collection, complete transparency did not occur until the data were published online. The authors estimate the heterogeneous treatment effects of the online data disclosure exploiting the phased rollout of the disclosure laws across states, facilitated by recent advances in machine learning methods. Using a 29-month national panel covering $100 million in payments between 16 antidiabetic brands and 50,000 physicians, the authors find that the monthly payments changed insignificantly, on average, due to disclosure. However, the average null effect masks some unintended consequences of disclosure, wherein payments may have increased for more expensive drugs and among physicians who prescribed more heavily. The authors further explore potential mechanisms that can parsimoniously describe the data pattern.

中文翻译：

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EXPRESS：信息披露对医生行业支付的影响

2019 年，美国制药公司以礼物的形式向医生支付了 36 亿美元，以推广他们的药物。为了遏制医疗保健提供者与公司之间的不当财务关系，一些州法律要求公司公开申报他们向医生支付的款项。2013 年，这项披露法已推广到所有 50 个州。作者调查了这种透明度增加对公司和医生之间后续付款的因果影响。虽然公司和医生在数据收集时被告知披露规定，但直到数据在线发布后才实现完全透明。作者利用机器学习方法的最新进展促进了跨州分阶段推出的披露法，估计了在线数据披露的异质处理效果。作者使用一个为期 29 个月的全国小组，涵盖 16 个抗糖尿病品牌和 50,000 名医生之间的 1 亿美元付款，作者发现平均而言，由于信息披露，每月付款的变化微不足道。然而，平均无效效应掩盖了披露的一些意想不到的后果，其中更昂贵的药物和处方更多的医生的付款可能会增加。作者进一步探索了可以简洁地描述数据模式的潜在机制。其中，更昂贵的药物和处方量更大的医生的付款可能会增加。作者进一步探索了可以简洁地描述数据模式的潜在机制。其中，更昂贵的药物和处方量更大的医生的付款可能会增加。作者进一步探索了可以简洁地描述数据模式的潜在机制。