Benjamin Castro, MD
Surgery · Springfield, MONPI 1881117018
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 122 payments — averaging $78.30 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$3K
- Davol Inc.$2K
- Johnson & Johnson$1K
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$944
- W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$706
- Medtronic$311
- plus $798 from 11 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$3,14133%
- Food & beverage$4,81250%
- Education$1,60017%
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 | 21 | $3,076 |
| Davol Inc. | 14 | $2,484 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 48 | $1,235 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 6 | $944 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 6 | $706 |
| Medtronic | 3 | $311 |
| Novo Nordisk | 10 | $296 |
| BD | 2 | $137 |
| Teleflex LLC | 2 | $85 |
| Vertex | 3 | $63 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 1 | $50 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 1 | $48 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $41 |
| Lilly USA, LLC | 1 | $27 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 1 | $19 |
| Kerecis Limited | 1 | $18 |
| Currax Pharmaceuticals 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.
- Da Vinci Surgical System$1,488
- DAVINCI XI$1,000
- LINX Reflux Management System$896
- GORE BIO-A Tissue Reinforcement$492
- Phasix Mesh$481
- N/A$344
- Signia$294
- ECHELON ENDOPATH$142
- Wegovy$125
- Echelon Flex$108
How this compares
$9,553 in reported general payments places this provider in the 80th percentile of 612 surgery providers in Missouri.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ondansetron OdtOndansetron | 20 | $410 |
| Sucralfate | 12 | $186 |
| Pantoprazole Sodium | 14 | $139 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 13 | $36 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 18 | $25 |
| Pregabalin | 13 | $25 |
| Methocarbamol | 12 | $24 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery in Springfield
- Timothy WoodsSpringfield$91K
- Christopher EdwardsSpringfield$42K
- Tiffany OsbornSaint Louis$493K
- Jeffrey BlatnikSaint Louis$422K
- Varun PuriSaint Louis$346K
- Victor VidalsKansas City$327K
- James ScottSaint Louis$307K
- Andrew WheelerColumbia$298K
- Omar GuerraSaint Louis$249K
- Michael AwadSaint Louis$248K
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.