Amy Thorsen, MD
Colon & Rectal Surgery · Minneapolis, MNNPI 1215945944
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $1,782 of the $2,523 with a category attached, or 70.6%. 5 manufacturers reported payments, led by Intuitive Surgical at 46.1% of the total. 2024 is the largest year on record at $1,820, more than ten times the $32 reported in 2020.
Across 32 payments — averaging $78.85 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$1K
- Medtronic$1K
- Cook Biotech Incorporated$136
- RTI Surgical, Inc$126
- Johnson & Johnson$17
Across 1,000 payments — averaging $29.10 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.
- Bausch Health US, LLC$29K
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$55322%
- Food & beverage$1,78271%
- Education$1807%
- Gifts$90%
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 | 8 | $1,163 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 21 | $1,080 |
| Cook Biotech Incorporated | 1 | $136 |
| RTI Surgical, Inc | 1 | $126 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 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.
- Da Vinci Surgical System$979
- BIODESIGN$263
- INTERSTIM$144
How this compares
$2,523 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th percentile of 64 colon & rectal surgery providers in Minnesota.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gavilyte-GPeg3350/Sod Sulf,bicarb,cl/Kcl | 58 | $1,638 |
| Peg-3350 And ElectrolytesPeg3350/Sod Sulf,bicarb,cl/Kcl | 20 | $554 |
| Gavilyte-CPeg3350/Sod Sulf,bicarb,cl/Kcl | 17 | $424 |
| Neomycin Sulfate | 37 | $195 |
| Metronidazole | 42 | $114 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 22 | $58 |
| Ondansetron Hcl | 34 | $47 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other colon & rectal surgery in Minneapolis
- Wolfgang GaertnerMinneapolis$160K
- Elliot ArsoniadisMinneapolis$35K
- Pamela BurgessMinneapolis$5K
- Alice LeeMinneapolis$1K
- Genevieve Melton MeauxMinneapolis$1K
- Isabelle le LeannecMinneapolis$806
- Katherine WatsonMinneapolis$429
- Robert MadoffMinneapolis$333
- Mark WeltonMinneapolis$226
- Elle KalbfellMinneapolis$133
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.