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Feb 14, 2026•6 min read•Bozidar Benko

Query CMS Open Payments in Codex, Claude Code, and OpenClaw

Run repeatable CMS Open Payments analysis in Codex, Claude Code, and OpenClaw, then verify results with direct source links.

What Open Payments Is

CMS Open Payments is a public transparency dataset that reports payments and other transfers of value from manufacturers to physicians and teaching hospitals.

The data is useful for analysis, but credible findings still require reliable filtering and record-level verification.

These entries are public disclosures and do not, by themselves, indicate wrongdoing.

Official portal: https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov

A Faster Way to Explore Open Payments Data

Ask in plain language, get a quick summary, and drill into row-level records in the same thread.

The CMS portal supports provider and company lookups; OPD adds repeatable product and drug queries with source-linked output.

In this post, the first example runs in OpenClaw via WhatsApp and the next two run in Codex.

Messaging workflow showing OPD query for Da Vinci product and anonymized provider transaction drill-down
OpenClaw via WhatsApp: aggregate query followed by transaction-level verification with source URLs.

Example: From Product Query to Ranked Provider List

This example starts with a product question and returns a ranked provider list.

The image shows the end-to-end flow in Codex.

  • Product prompt in, provider list out
  • Ready for immediate drill-down
OPD skill returning provider list for Zepbound product query in 2024
Codex run: product query flow returning a provider list with retry recovery from transient CMS/API issues.

Drill Down to Provider-Level Transactions

After identifying providers, the next step is to verify row-level transactions tied to a provider.

The image shows the drill-down flow in Codex, including direct URLs to payment records.

  • Provider list in, payment rows out
  • Direct source links for fast verification
OPD detailed payment output for an anonymized provider with row-level Open Payments URLs
Codex run: provider deep dive with grouped physician profiles and direct payment, physician, and company links.

Prompt Ideas by Audience

Use these as starter prompts.

Replace the product, company, provider, and year based on your use case.

Compliance teams

  • "Show providers with the highest total payments tied to this product in 2024."
  • "List payment details with URLs for this provider in 2024."
  • "Flag providers with sharp year-over-year payment changes for this company."

Pharma and medtech analytics

  • "Rank providers tied to Product A in 2024 by total payment amount."
  • "Compare provider payment totals for Product A vs Product B in 2024."
  • "Break down this company's 2024 payments by nature category and provider."

Medical affairs and field leadership

  • "Summarize 2024 Open Payments records for this provider with linked sources."
  • "Show this provider's payments tied to this product and include URLs."
  • "Create a pre-meeting context brief for this provider based on 2024 records."

Policy and academic researchers

  • "List providers paid by this company in 2024 with totals and source URLs."
  • "Filter these results to Food and Beverage and return row-level links."
  • "Compare product-linked provider payment totals across 2022, 2023, and 2024."

Patients and caregivers

  • "Show publicly reported payments for this provider in 2024 with source URLs."
  • "If location fields are available, list providers in my state tied to this product in 2024."
  • "Compare two providers' publicly reported payment totals for 2024."

Get Started

To install it inside Codex, Claude Code, or OpenClaw, just say "install https://github.com/bbenko/opd-skill ".

This project is open source and available at https://github.com/bbenko/opd-skill . PRs and suggestions are welcome.

Need help installing or adapting prompts for your team? Reach out.

This post shows one pattern using public data. The same approach can be built on proprietary in-house data plus current company context to make workflows more explorable, actionable, and easy to access from mobile phones or computers.