CMS Open Payments · Program Year 2024
Tennessee
Tennessee received $81,945,771.60 in pharmaceutical-industry payments to 14,549 physicians and 21 teaching hospitals across 514,252 transactions.
- $81.9M
- Total payments
- $69.6M
- To physicians
- $3.0M
- To teaching hospitals
- #13
- of 59 states
In CMS Open Payments Program Year 2024, pharmaceutical and medical-device companies reported $81.9M in payments to 14,549 physicians and 21 teaching hospitals in Tennessee. That ranks Tennessee #13 of 59 states and territories (0.6% of the US total), averaging $4.8K 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
Tennessee pairs top-quartile payment volume with a physician-heavy payment mix.
- #13
- of 59 states
- 0.6%
- of the national total
- 85.0%
- to physicians vs. hospitals
- 14,549
- physicians paid
What the Data Shows for Tennessee
Tennessee sits in the high-volume tercile at #13 of 59 by all-tracks dollars (0.6% of the US total): $81,945,771.60 across 514,252 PY2024 transactions.
Physician versus hospital mix is near the corpus middle (85.0% / 3.7%). Average transaction $159.35. Leading nature of payment: "Royalty or License" at $32.1M (39.2% of the state file; top-three natures 70.2%).
Tennessee sits in the 80th percentile (mid-pack). Just above: North Carolina ($97.2M). Just below: Virginia ($80.6M). For context: top-ranked California ($342.4M) is 4.2× larger than Tennessee. CMS Sunshine Act framework and methodology.
Physician vs Hospital Payments
How pharmaceutical payments in Tennessee are distributed between physicians and teaching hospitals.
Physician Payments
$69.6M
85.0% of total · 14,549 recipients · $4.8K avg
Teaching Hospital Payments
$3.0M
3.7% of total · 21 hospitals · $143.0K avg
Payment Breakdown by Type
Tennessee has 16 types of pharmaceutical payments. "Royalty or License" accounts for 39.2%.
Nature concentration in Tennessee
Top three Open Payments natures are 70.2% of state dollars; residual is every other reported nature
Payment categories in Tennessee
Top categories by total reported dollar volume
| Payment Type | Amount | Transactions | % of State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty or License | $32.1M | 302 | 39.2% |
| Compensation for Services Other Than Consulting | $13.7M | 6,246 | 16.8% |
| Food and Beverage | $11.7M | 482,812 | 14.2% |
| Consulting Fee | $11.6M | 4,228 | 14.1% |
| Travel and Lodging | $4.7M | 14,306 | 5.7% |
| Grant | $1.9M | 150 | 2.3% |
| Education | $1.1M | 4,152 | 1.4% |
| Debt Forgiveness | $1.1M | 207 | 1.3% |
| Space Rental or Facility Fees | $945.5K | 162 | 1.2% |
| Honoraria | $936.6K | 440 | 1.1% |
| Acquisitions | $930.8K | 10 | 1.1% |
| Long-Term Medical Supply or Device Loan | $679.6K | 337 | 0.8% |
| Compensation for Faculty or Speaker (Medical Education) | $512.3K | 215 | 0.6% |
| Gift | $77.9K | 536 | 0.1% |
| Charitable Contribution | $12.2K | 5 | 0.0% |
| Entertainment | $9.7K | 144 | 0.0% |
Read with this Tennessee 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: North Carolina ($97.2M)
- Next lower total: Virginia ($80.6M)
- Nearest physician-share mix: New York (85.3% to physicians)
- Nearest physician-share mix: Oklahoma (84.6% to physicians)
- Nearest physician-share mix: California (84.5% to physicians)
- National catalog for leading nature here: Royalty or License (39.2% of Tennessee)
- State payment rankings (includes Tennessee at #13)
- 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 Tennessee totals can and cannot tell you
The aggregate payment figure for Tennessee 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.