Industry payments to physicians · California · 2024

California

In California, drug and device makers reported $302M in general payments to 94,737 covered recipients (physicians and other clinicians) for 2024 — a mean of $3,186 each — plus $1.04B tied to research and $91M in ownership interests.

A payment is a disclosed financial tie, not proof of wrongdoing — many are research grants, consulting fees, or royalties a physician earns on a device they invented. Transparency, not a verdict.

$302M

general payments

94,737

covered recipients paid

$3,186

mean per physician

Top specialties in California

General payments by specialty; the figure on the right is the average per physician.

Orthopaedic Surgery $24M $19,897/phys

Ophthalmology $14M $8,286/phys

Sports Medicine $11M $25,587/phys

Internal Medicine $11M $1,956/phys

Unspecified $10M $2,143/phys

Dermatology $9M $7,509/phys

Hematology & Oncology $9M $9,137/phys

Cardiovascular Disease $9M $5,610/phys

Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine $9M $36,668/phys

Neurology $8M $7,080/phys

Surgery $8M $5,419/phys

Neurological Surgery $8M $14,461/phys

Highest-paid physicians in California

By total general payments, 2024 — largely device royalties to inventor-physicians.

Daniel Schwartz Ophthalmology · San Francisco · top payer: RxSight Inc $8M

William Binder Plastic Surgery Within the Head and Neck · Beverly Hills · top payer: AbbVie Inc. $7M

Neal Elattrache Sports Medicine · Los Angeles · top payer: Arthrex, Inc. $7M

Christian Eversull Internal Medicine · Stanford · top payer: Medtronic, Inc. $3M

Robert Gorab Orthopaedic Surgery · Orange · top payer: DePuy Synthes Products, Inc. $3M

Clifford Ruddle Endodontics · Santa Barbara · top payer: Dentsply Sirona Inc $2M

Michael Scianamblo Endodontics · San Rafael · top payer: Dentsply Sirona Inc $2M

Thomas Coon Orthopaedic Surgery · Red Bluff · top payer: Stryker Corporation $2M

Stephen Howell Orthopaedic Surgery · Sacramento · top payer: Medacta USA, Inc. $2M

Timothy Chuter Surgery · San Francisco · top payer: Cook Incorporated $2M

John Dearborn Adult Reconstructive Orthopaedic Surgery · Menlo Park · top payer: Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. $2M

William Maloney Adult Reconstructive Orthopaedic Surgery · Stanford · top payer: Stryker Corporation $2M

Nirav Amin Orthopaedic Surgery · Placentia · top payer: Linvatec Corporation $1M

Hyun Bae Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Santa Monica · top payer: DePuy Synthes Products, Inc. $1M

Christopher Ames Neurological Surgery · San Francisco · top payer: Medtronic, Inc. $1M

Sam Khalifian Procedural Dermatology · La Mesa · top payer: AbbVie Inc. $1M

Sigurd Berven Orthopaedic Surgery · San Francisco · top payer: Medtronic, Inc. $1M

Christopher Kreulen Orthopaedic Surgery · Sacramento · top payer: Arthrex, Inc. $1M

Gustavo Alva Psychiatry · Orange · top payer: Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. $1M

Paul Kurth Cardiovascular Disease · Santa Barbara · top payer: Merit Medical Systems Inc $960,894

Nathaniel Cohen Sports Medicine · Los Gatos · top payer: Smith+Nephew, Inc. $944,620

Stephen Sherwin Medical Oncology · San Francisco · top payer: Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. $902,213

Aaron Berez Neuroradiology · Mountain View · top payer: Medtronic, Inc. $841,267

Robert Eastlack Orthopaedic Surgery · La Jolla · top payer: SI-BONE, Inc. $809,045

Alan Hirahara Orthopaedic Surgery · Sacramento · top payer: Arthrex, Inc. $784,202

RECORDED — CMS Open Payments figures for program year 2024. DERIVED — state totals, per-physician means, and rankings are sums over those records.

Machine-readable: JSON-LD · Markdown · national overview

What this is — and is not

A disclosure record of industry–physician financial ties in California — not evidence that any payment influenced care, not a measure of a physician's quality, and not advice about your own doctor. To verify a specific physician, search CMS Open Payments directly.