Alice Higdon, DO
Surgery · Paducah, KYNPI 1326488891
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — food and beverage (56.9%), speaking fees and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 73.8% of it on its own, with 20 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $1,757 and has fallen 97.7% since, to $40 in 2025.
Across 87 payments — averaging $52.77 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$3K
- AbbVie$531
- Davol Inc.$157
- Hologic Sales And Service, LLC$102
- Merck$70
- Stryker$49
- plus $295 from 15 others
What the payments were for
- Speaking & faculty fees$1,00022%
- Travel & lodging$96421%
- Food & beverage$2,61057%
- Gifts$160%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical | 42 | $3,386 |
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 21 | $531 |
| Davol Inc. | 2 | $157 |
| Hologic Sales And Service, LLC | 1 | $102 |
| Merck | 3 | $70 |
| Stryker | 1 | $49 |
| Melinta Therapeutics, LLC | 2 | $34 |
| Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc. | 2 | $28 |
| Dilon Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $23 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 1 | $23 |
| Innocoll Pharmaceuticals Limited | 1 | $23 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Genentech USA, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 1 | $18 |
| Focal Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Merit Medical Systems Inc | 1 | $15 |
| Tactile Systems Technology Inc | 1 | $15 |
| Shire North American Group Inc | 1 | $13 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $13 |
| Ambu Inc. | 1 | $13 |
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.
How this compares
$4,591 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th percentile of 377 surgery providers in Kentucky.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 109 | $319 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery in Paducah
- Paige QuinteroPaducah$20K
- Kristen WilliamsPaducah$18K
- Clinton KaufmanPaducah$13K
- Eric SmithAshland$1.1M
- John RothLexington$820K
- John OldhamLouisville$515K
- George MundayDanville$271K
- Amber KoonHenderson$210K
- Frank MillerLouisville$119K
- Jared DavisLouisville$89K
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.