Physicians accepting payments from drug and device companies administered significantly more hyaluronic acid (HA) injections to Medicare beneficiaries for knee osteoarthritis, researchers found.

Those receiving more than $100 in cash or other forms of remuneration were more than three times as likely to give HA injections under Medicare Part B than those receiving no payments (OR 3.28, 95% CI 2.70-3.98), according to Nishant Uppal, MD, MBA, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Timothy S. Anderson, MD, MAS, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, both in Boston.