CMS Open Payments · Program Year 2024
California
California received $342,387,418.09 in pharmaceutical-industry payments to 75,013 physicians and 121 teaching hospitals across 1,410,893 transactions.
- $342.4M
- Total payments
- $289.3M
- To physicians
- $33.6M
- To teaching hospitals
- #1
- of 59 states
In CMS Open Payments Program Year 2024, pharmaceutical and medical-device companies reported $342.4M in payments to 75,013 physicians and 121 teaching hospitals in California. That ranks California #1 of 59 states and territories (2.5% of the US total), averaging $3.9K per physician. Figures are company-reported under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act; a reported payment is a financial relationship, not evidence of wrongdoing.
The verdict
California pairs top-1% payment volume with a physician-heavy payment mix.
- #1
- of 59 states
- 2.5%
- of the national total
- 84.5%
- to physicians vs. hospitals
- 75,013
- physicians paid
What the Data Shows for California
California sits in the high-volume tercile at #1 of 59 by all-tracks dollars (2.5% of the US total): $342,387,418.09 across 1,410,893 PY2024 transactions.
Physician versus hospital mix is near the corpus middle (84.5% / 9.8%). Average transaction $242.67. Leading nature of payment: "Compensation for Services Other Than Consulting" at $85.6M (25.0% of the state file; top-three natures 66.1%).
California sits in the 100th percentile (top-10 nationally). Just below: Florida ($334.6M). For context: top-ranked California ($342.4M) is 1.0× larger than California. CMS Sunshine Act framework and methodology.
Physician vs Hospital Payments
How pharmaceutical payments in California are distributed between physicians and teaching hospitals.
Physician Payments
$289.3M
84.5% of total · 75,013 recipients · $3.9K avg
Teaching Hospital Payments
$33.6M
9.8% of total · 121 hospitals · $277.9K avg
Payment Breakdown by Type
California has 16 types of pharmaceutical payments. "Compensation for Services Other Than Consulting" accounts for 25.0%.
Nature concentration in California
Top three Open Payments natures are 66.1% of state dollars; residual is every other reported nature
Payment categories in California
Top categories by total reported dollar volume
| Payment Type | Amount | Transactions | % of State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation for Services Other Than Consulting | $85.6M | 27,034 | 25.0% |
| Consulting Fee | $72.5M | 21,560 | 21.2% |
| Royalty or License | $68.0M | 2,214 | 19.9% |
| Food and Beverage | $41.6M | 1,262,821 | 12.1% |
| Travel and Lodging | $23.9M | 65,363 | 7.0% |
| Grant | $15.7M | 1,010 | 4.6% |
| Education | $7.3M | 18,260 | 2.1% |
| Honoraria | $6.0M | 1,920 | 1.8% |
| Space Rental or Facility Fees | $4.7M | 924 | 1.4% |
| Compensation for Faculty or Speaker (Medical Education) | $4.7M | 1,688 | 1.4% |
| Acquisitions | $4.6M | 81 | 1.3% |
| Long-Term Medical Supply or Device Loan | $4.2M | 2,227 | 1.2% |
| Debt Forgiveness | $2.7M | 732 | 0.8% |
| Gift | $701.3K | 4,075 | 0.2% |
| Charitable Contribution | $163.0K | 60 | 0.0% |
| Entertainment | $79.7K | 924 | 0.0% |
Read with this California Open Payments read
Volume neighbors, physician-share peers, and the national nature catalog, not the same three guides on every state page.
- Next lower total: Florida ($334.6M)
- Nearest physician-share mix: Oklahoma (84.6% to physicians)
- Nearest physician-share mix: Tennessee (85.0% to physicians)
- Nearest physician-share mix: New York (85.3% to physicians)
- National catalog for leading nature here: Compensation for Services Other Th… (25.0% of California)
- State payment rankings (includes California at #1)
- How Open Payments natures are defined
Data Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments, Program Year 2024. Data includes general payments, research payments, and physician ownership/investment interests as required by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Total industry payments: $13.9B across 1,925 companies.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: CMS Open Payments Database Industry payments to physicians and teaching hospitals · 2024
What California totals can and cannot tell you
The aggregate payment figure for California measures reportable industry–physician engagement inside this state's geographic footprint for Program Year 2024, not any one physician's or hospital's relationship with industry. CMS collects the data under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act; manufacturers must report transfers of value above the de minimis threshold. The file does not capture DTC advertising, internal R&D, wholesale drug pricing, or salary support that is not a reportable transfer of value.
Correlations between payment receipt and prescribing appear in peer-reviewed work for specific drugs and specialties, but this page's state total does not establish causation. Open the company and recipient detail pages for category and year-over-year cuts.
Every figure on PlainPharmaWatch is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-07-26.