CMS Open Payments · Program Year 2024
North Carolina
North Carolina received $97,176,999.32 in pharmaceutical-industry payments to 21,369 physicians and 20 teaching hospitals across 548,309 transactions.
- $97.2M
- Total payments
- $80.4M
- To physicians
- $7.0M
- To teaching hospitals
- #12
- of 59 states
In CMS Open Payments Program Year 2024, pharmaceutical and medical-device companies reported $97.2M in payments to 21,369 physicians and 20 teaching hospitals in North Carolina. That ranks North Carolina #12 of 59 states and territories (0.7% of the US total), averaging $3.8K 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
North Carolina pairs top-quartile payment volume with a physician-heavy payment mix.
- #12
- of 59 states
- 0.7%
- of the national total
- 82.7%
- to physicians vs. hospitals
- 21,369
- physicians paid
What the Data Shows for North Carolina
North Carolina sits in the high-volume tercile at #12 of 59 by all-tracks dollars (0.7% of the US total): $97,176,999.32 across 548,309 PY2024 transactions.
Physician versus hospital mix is near the corpus middle (82.7% / 7.2%). Average transaction $177.23. Leading nature of payment: "Consulting Fee" at $23.5M (24.2% of the state file; top-three natures 62.5%).
North Carolina sits in the 81st percentile (mid-pack). Just above: Michigan ($101.8M). Just below: Tennessee ($81.9M). For context: top-ranked California ($342.4M) is 3.5× larger than North Carolina. CMS Sunshine Act framework and methodology.
Physician vs Hospital Payments
How pharmaceutical payments in North Carolina are distributed between physicians and teaching hospitals.
Physician Payments
$80.4M
82.7% of total · 21,369 recipients · $3.8K avg
Teaching Hospital Payments
$7.0M
7.2% of total · 20 hospitals · $347.5K avg
Payment Breakdown by Type
North Carolina has 16 types of pharmaceutical payments. "Consulting Fee" accounts for 24.2%.
Nature concentration in North Carolina
Top three Open Payments natures are 62.5% of state dollars; residual is every other reported nature
Payment categories in North Carolina
Top categories by total reported dollar volume
| Payment Type | Amount | Transactions | % of State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consulting Fee | $23.5M | 6,940 | 24.2% |
| Compensation for Services Other Than Consulting | $20.3M | 8,461 | 20.9% |
| Royalty or License | $17.0M | 744 | 17.5% |
| Food and Beverage | $13.4M | 502,590 | 13.8% |
| Travel and Lodging | $7.6M | 21,718 | 7.8% |
| Acquisitions | $5.0M | 10 | 5.1% |
| Grant | $2.6M | 194 | 2.7% |
| Education | $1.9M | 4,893 | 1.9% |
| Compensation for Faculty or Speaker (Medical Education) | $1.8M | 672 | 1.9% |
| Honoraria | $1.5M | 599 | 1.6% |
| Long-Term Medical Supply or Device Loan | $1.4M | 381 | 1.4% |
| Space Rental or Facility Fees | $780.3K | 212 | 0.8% |
| Debt Forgiveness | $265.1K | 71 | 0.3% |
| Gift | $126.3K | 622 | 0.1% |
| Entertainment | $16.3K | 193 | 0.0% |
| Charitable Contribution | $2.3K | 9 | 0.0% |
Read with this North Carolina Open Payments read
Volume neighbors, physician-share peers, and the national nature catalog, not the same three guides on every state page.
- Next higher total: Michigan ($101.8M)
- Next lower total: Tennessee ($81.9M)
- Nearest physician-share mix: Guam (82.6% to physicians)
- Nearest physician-share mix: Arizona (82.9% to physicians)
- Nearest physician-share mix: New Mexico (82.9% to physicians)
- National catalog for leading nature here: Consulting Fee (24.2% of North Carolina)
- State payment rankings (includes North Carolina at #12)
- 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 North Carolina totals can and cannot tell you
The aggregate payment figure for North Carolina 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.