It has been learnt from the federal government's first full-year accounting of the breadth of industry financial ties with medical providers that $6.49 billion were paid by drug and medical-device makers to US doctors and teaching hospitals during 2014.

Several payments were made to more than 600,000 doctors and 1,100 hospitals for services such as consultation, research and promotional speeches about drugs. Moreover, sales reps also paid for free meals provided to doctors.

The figures have come into picture because of a new federal-government transparency initiative. A provision dubbed the Sunshine Act was included in the a provision dubbed the Sunshine Act, requiring manufacturers of drugs and medical devices to disclose how much they pay to physicians and teaching hospitals each year.

The records have been compiled by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, into an online, searchable database known as Open Payments. Concerns over lack of transparency were raised after learning that money and gifts that doctors receive each year from companies are mostly meant to influence their prescribing decisions.

It is believed that the transparency initiative will provide a great help in keeping patients informed about the relationships their doctors have with industry and not allow payments on medical care to taint the prescribing decisions made by doctors.

"The vast majority of the data released today has not been independently validated by physicians, which makes it less usable for the patients it's intended to benefit", said The American Medical Association (AMA).