Has Aaron Clark, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $173,971 in general payments to Aaron Clark, MD across 446 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Aaron Clark, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Aaron Clark, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Aaron Clark, MD

Neurological Surgery · San Francisco, CANPI 1518295815

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $105,130 of the $173,971 with a category attached, or 60.4%. 17 manufacturers reported payments, led by Alphatec Spine, Inc at 38.3% of the total. 2025 is the largest year on record at $46,973, 2.1 times the $22,380 reported in 2019. Among neurological surgery clinicians in CA with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.

$173,971in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 446 payments — averaging $390.07 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Alphatec Spine, Inc$67K
Globus Medical$58K
Carlsmed, Inc.$37K
Icotec Medical Inc.$4K
Medtronic$4K
Si-bone, Inc.$991
plus $2K from 11 others

$675,509in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 14 payments — averaging $48,251 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.

Medtronic$638K
Carlsmed, Inc.$37K

What the payments were for

Royalty or licence$18,36011%
Consulting fees$105,13060%
Speaking & faculty fees$3,2002%
Travel & lodging$27,59116%
Food & beverage$19,60311%
Entertainment$860%

General payments by program year

Who reported the general payments

Companies are grouped under their corporate parent — a single manufacturer often files under several CMS reporting entities. Research and ownership payments are counted separately and are not in this table.

Company	Payments	Total
Alphatec Spine, Inc	52	$66,683
Globus Medical	265	$58,301
Carlsmed, Inc.	31	$37,485
Icotec Medical Inc.	14	$4,329
Medtronic	54	$4,045
Si-bone, Inc.	9	$991
Stryker	5	$819
Johnson & Johnson	2	$243
Medacta USA, Inc.	2	$241
Life Spine, Inc.	2	$190
Cerapedics Inc.	1	$148
Spineart USA Inc	1	$140
Boston Scientific	1	$120
Seaspine Orthopedics Corporation	1	$104
AbbVie	4	$68
Chiesi USA, Inc.	1	$37
Spineology Inc.	1	$28

What the payments were tied to

Products named in the reported payments. Only payments of $100 or more are attributed here — the typical reported payment nationally is a meal worth about $16, and listing those product-by-product would be noise.

Other - Miscellaneous$63,820
aprevo$37,139
XLIF$18,568
ALIF$8,806
COHERE$5,379
Pulse$3,741
VADER PEDICLE SYSTEM 6.0, SCREW, Carbon/PEEK, POLYAX., FEN., O 5.5 X 45 MM$3,588
VADER PEDICLE SYSTEM, ROD, Carbon/PEEK, CURVED, 6.0 R450 X 200 MM$3,588
KONG-TL VBR E, EXPANDABLE BODY, L, 19 MM X 27 - 37 MM$3,588
KONG-TL VBR, END PLATE, ROUND, L AND SCREW, 12 X 43 MM$3,588
KONG-TL VBR, END PLATE, RECTANGULAR, M AND SCREW, 12 X 33 MM$3,588
TLIF$2,358
MAZOR X SYSTEM$1,963
UNID_PASS$897
X-CORE$621
CoRoent$589
LIF$567
iFuse Implant$488
Archon$461
EVEREST$309

How this compares

$173,971 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 773 neurological surgery providers in California.

See all neurological surgery providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$688,456

Medicare patients

447

Services billed

1,825

What this is not: this is the amount Original Medicare Part B allowed for services this provider billed in 2024. It is not their income. It excludes Medicare Advantage — now more than half of all Medicare enrollment — along with Medicaid and all commercial insurance, and it is gross practice revenue before staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums. CMS also suppresses any figure covering ten or fewer patients, so low-volume providers appear smaller than they are.

Most prescribed under Part D

Drug	Claims	Cost to plans & patients
Naloxone Hcl	18	$1,165
Gabapentin	19	$313
Baclofen	30	$290

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other neurological surgery in San Francisco

Christopher AmesSan Francisco$7.1M
Praveen MummaneniSan Francisco$1.1M
Lee TanSan Francisco$682K
Jang YoonSan Francisco$227K
Larry KhooLos Angeles$2.8M
Samy AbdouSan Diego$2.4M
Bret AbshireMurrieta$2.3M
William TaylorSan Diego$2.1M
Tooraj GravoriEncino$2M
Ali MesiwalaRancho Cucamonga$1.5M

See the full list for California →

Where these figures come from

Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
Billing: Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, data year 2024. Original Medicare Part B only.
Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.

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