Comparison
Kentucky and Alabama, compared
Drug and device manufacturers reported paying doctors $198,964,340 in Kentucky and $175,672,140 in Alabama between 2019 and 2025. Below that, what doctors in each state prescribed under Medicare Part D in 2024.
Side by side
1 more column on a wider screen
| Measure | Kentucky | Alabama |
|---|---|---|
| General paymentsPaid outside a research agreement, reported by the maker. | $199.0 million$198,964,340 | $175.7 million$175,672,140 |
| Research paymentsGrants for studies, usually paid to an institution. Never added to the line above. | $7.1 million$7,121,520 | $5.3 million$5,349,921 |
| Doctors paidPeople CMS holds a reported payment for. Not the number of doctors in the state. | 25,324 | 24,689 |
| Separate paymentsEach transaction a maker reported. | 1,753,301 | 1,923,193 |
| Part D prescriptionsClaims filled under Medicare Part D, counting every refill. | 33,224,940 | 32,456,175 |
| What those drugs costPaid to pharmacies by Medicare, its plans and patients. Not income for any doctor. | $5.0 billion$4,982,087,252 | $5.3 billion$5,349,039,557 |
| Opioid prescriptionsA floor: CMS withholds the count where it is between one and ten. | 1,467,466 | 1,674,479 |
How to read this
- Nothing here is divided by a population. The doctor count is doctors CMS holds a payment for, not doctors practising in the state, and neither source publishes the second. A bigger state has bigger figures on every line, and this page makes no attempt to correct for that — a per-resident or per-doctor figure computed from these columns would be arithmetically correct and about something else.
- The two halves are two programs over two periods. The payment rows are Open Payments over 2019–2025; the prescribing rows are Medicare Part D for 2024 alone. The period column says which, and no row of one should be read against a row of the other as though they described the same year.
- Larger is not worse. Neither a payment nor a prescription is a finding about anybody. The record says what a company reported paying and what a pharmacy filled; it says nothing about whether either was appropriate.
- The state is the practice address CMS holds, not where the work happened, the patient lives or the pharmacy stands.
Each state on its own
Data retrieved
Sources
- Open Payments — payments grouped by physician — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · U.S. Government work · retrieved September 25, 2026
- Medicare Part D Prescribers — by provider · retrieved September 22, 2026
Compiled automatically from Open Payments — payments grouped by physician and Medicare Part D Prescribers — by provider by a checked SQL query · Editor: Kian O'Connor · How this site is built