Ali Baaj, MD
Neurological Surgery · New York, NYNPI 1417148800
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $190,186 of the $239,996 with a category attached, or 79.2%. Medical Device Business Services, Inc. accounts for 70.7% of it on its own, with 20 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $87,373 and has fallen 67.4% since, to $28,500 in 2025. Among neurological surgery clinicians in NY 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.
Across 296 payments — averaging $810.80 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$170K
- Synthes GmbH$22K
- Depuy Synthes Products, Inc.$21K
- Johnson & Johnson$15K
- Stryker$5K
- Medtronic$4K
- plus $4K from 15 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$190,18679%
- Speaking & faculty fees$13,3756%
- Travel & lodging$22,0119%
- Food & beverage$14,4256%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 83 | $169,671 |
| Synthes GmbH | 20 | $22,002 |
| Depuy Synthes Products, Inc. | 29 | $20,801 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 57 | $14,600 |
| Stryker | 39 | $5,273 |
| Medtronic | 24 | $3,957 |
| Abbott | 15 | $1,936 |
| Alphatec Spine, Inc | 5 | $479 |
| Spineart USA Inc | 4 | $288 |
| Nevro Corp. | 3 | $279 |
| Globus Medical | 4 | $149 |
| 4web, Inc. | 1 | $137 |
| Spinal Elements, Inc. | 1 | $98 |
| Xtant Medical Inc | 1 | $71 |
| Biocomposites Inc | 2 | $57 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $55 |
| Microtransponder, Inc. | 1 | $50 |
| Brainlab, Inc. | 1 | $35 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 3 | $21 |
| Livanova USA, Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Amgen | 1 | $17 |
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.
- VIPER$61,744
- CONCORDE$50,454
- EXPEDIUM$36,791
- CONDUIT$5,430
- COUGAR$4,095
- MAZOR X SYSTEM$2,797
- SYMPHONY$2,684
- SERRATO$1,700
- Spine & Trauma 3D Navigation$1,472
- Velys$813
- TRITANIUM$804
- PROCLAIM$736
- Proclaim IPG$528
- K2M CERVICAL$450
- Sentio$408
- NAVIGATION$386
- Other - Miscellaneous$386
- CHESAPEAKE STABILIZATION SYSTEM$328
- Teligen$253
- Senza Spinal Cord Stimulation System$251
How this compares
$239,996 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 446 neurological surgery providers in New York.
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.
Other neurological surgery in New York
- J MoccoNew York$1.6M
- Alejandro BerensteinNew York$1.1M
- Darryl LauNew York$915K
- Mark BilskyNew York$903K
- Jan-Karl BurkhardtNew York$441K
- Dean ChouNew York$383K
- Reade DeleacyNew York$329K
- Johanna FifiNew York$326K
- David LangerNew York$258K
- Viviane TabarNew York$231K
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.