Abner Ward, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Merced, CANPI 1063531291
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 32 payments — averaging $55.64 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Stryker$323
- Skeletal Dynamics Inc$278
- Acumed LLC$271
- Orthopedic Sciences, Inc.$218
- Exactech, Inc.$213
- Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.$130
- plus $348 from 11 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$1,780100%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stryker(2 entities) | 6 | $323 |
| Skeletal Dynamics Inc | 6 | $278 |
| Acumed LLC | 3 | $271 |
| Orthopedic Sciences, Inc. | 1 | $218 |
| Exactech, Inc. | 2 | $213 |
| Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 1 | $130 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $83 |
| Arthrex | 1 | $73 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 2 | $33 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 2 | $27 |
| Heraeus Medical, LLC. | 1 | $24 |
| Cornerstone Medical Associates, Inc. | 1 | $22 |
| Organogenesis Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Amgen | 1 | $18 |
| Electronic Waveform Lab, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $17 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 1 | $14 |
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.
- Beacon Biomass Delivery Trephine$218
- EQUINOXE$213
- XIAFLEX$130
- Geminus$118
- Align$118
- IJS$118
- Implate$118
- Hand Fracture System$109
- Acu-Loc Wrist Plating System$109
- AEQUALIS$109
How this compares
$1,780 in reported general payments places this provider in the 45th percentile of 1,808 orthopaedic surgery providers in California.
Medicare billing
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Meloxicam | 376 | $3,013 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 69 | $1,124 |
| Gabapentin | 123 | $962 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 87 | $759 |
| Ibuprofen | 104 | $496 |
| Acetaminophen-CodeineAcetaminophen With Codeine | 31 | $330 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 38 | $123 |
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 12 | $96 |
| Cephalexin | 12 | $25 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Merced
- Bradford HackArcadia$18.3M
- Robert GorabOrange$14.5M
- Kelly VinceLos Angeles$9.6M
- Stephen HowellSacramento$9.4M
- Thomas CoonRed Bluff$9.2M
- Peter NewtonSan Diego$7M
- Nirav AminPlacentia$5.8M
- Tom NorrisSan Francisco$5.3M
- Jay LiebermanLos Angeles$4.8M
- Sigurd BervenSan Francisco$4.1M
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.