- Drug and Device Makers Pay Providers $8 Billion in 2016 Modern Healthcare by Virgil Dickson—Payments from drug and device companies to physicians and teaching hospitals hit more than $8 billion in 2016. The CMS released the third full year of open payments data on Friday. The disclosure is required by the Sunshine Act, a provision of the Affordable Care Act, as an effort to help the public learn about payments received by doctors from industry groups and how those payments could affect clinical care. All told, nearly 631,000 physicians and approximately 1,146 teaching hospitals received $8.18 billion in payments and ownership and investment interests in 2016, according to tallies compiled by the CMS. Last year's total was $7.52 billion.