Has Ashar Afzal, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $2,299 in general payments to Ashar Afzal, MD across 19 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 Ashar Afzal, 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 Ashar Afzal, 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.

Ashar Afzal, MD

Interventional Pain Medicine · Waterloo, IANPI 1689628117

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by travel and lodging: $1,887 of the $2,299 with a category attached, or 82.1%. 6 manufacturers reported payments, led by SPR Therapeutics, Inc at 42.8% of the total. 2025 is the largest year on record at $985, 4.4 times the $224 reported in 2019.

$2,299in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 19 payments — averaging $121.02 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

SPR Therapeutics, Inc$985
Boston Scientific$872
Medtronic$224
Stryker$151
Abbott$34
Ironshore Pharmaceuticals Inc.$32

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$1,88782%
Food & beverage$41218%

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
SPR Therapeutics, Inc	4	$985
Boston Scientific	6	$872
Medtronic	4	$224
Stryker	2	$151
Abbott	1	$34
Ironshore Pharmaceuticals Inc.	2	$32

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

Too few interventional pain medicine providers in Iowato place this figure against a meaningful peer group, so we don't.

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$101,843

Medicare patients

433

Services billed

1,191

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
Fentanyl	70	$5,841
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	358	$5,822
Gabapentin	208	$2,880
Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen	157	$2,427
Tramadol Hcl	152	$1,194
Tizanidine Hcl	86	$968
Duloxetine Hcl	64	$832
Pregabalin	52	$801
Baclofen	42	$627
Cyclobenzaprine Hcl	36	$394
Orphenadrine Citrate ErOrphenadrine Citrate	11	$371
Celecoxib	37	$292
Morphine Sulfate ErMorphine Sulfate	27	$243
Diclofenac Sodium	12	$168
Hydromorphone Hcl	17	$164

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other interventional pain medicine in Waterloo

Frank HawkinsWaterloo$1K
Arjun RameshDubuque$24K
Andrzej SzczepanekWest Des Moines$12K
Alison WeisheiplWest Des Moines$8K
Ronald KlocMason City$5K
Thomas KleinDes Moines$4K
Fredrick DeryNorth Liberty$2K
Mohammad IqbalDes Moines$631
Christian LedetWest Des Moines$595
Nathan MeloyBettendorf$173

See the full list for Iowa →

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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