Benjamin Elder
Neurological Surgery · Rochester, MNNPI 1609190156
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $45,664 of the $68,851 with a category attached, or 66.3%. Si-bone, Inc. accounts for 75.4% of it on its own, with 11 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $39,842 and has fallen 53.7% since, to $18,435 in 2025. Among neurological surgery clinicians in MN 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 122 payments — averaging $564.35 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Si-bone, Inc.$52K
- Medtronic$10K
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$3K
- Integra Lifesciences Corporation$2K
- Arthrex$794
- Spineology Inc.$286
- plus $609 from 6 others
Across 26 payments — averaging $3789.85 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.
- Si-bone, Inc.$95K
- Amgen$3K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$45,66466%
- Speaking & faculty fees$6,3009%
- Travel & lodging$11,27816%
- Food & beverage$5,6098%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Si-bone, Inc. | 71 | $51,947 |
| Medtronic | 21 | $9,602 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 14 | $3,191 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 3 | $2,423 |
| Arthrex | 4 | $794 |
| Spineology Inc. | 1 | $286 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 3 | $232 |
| Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc | 1 | $122 |
| VB Spine LLC | 1 | $122 |
| Foundation Medical, LLC | 1 | $87 |
| Stryker | 1 | $26 |
| Biocomposites Inc | 1 | $21 |
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.
- IFUSE IMPLANT SYSTEM$49,525
- INTEGRA$4,800
- MAZOR X SYSTEM$2,623
- Velys$1,369
- iFuse Implant$1,000
- UNID_PASS$337
- OPTIMESH EXPANDABLE INTERBODY FUSION SYSTEM$286
- Vivigen MIS Delivery System$248
- Teligen$150
- Spine & Trauma 3D Navigation$127
- XIA 3$122
How this compares
$68,851 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 140 neurological 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.
Other neurological surgery in Rochester
- Kendall LeeRochester$2.3M
- Vijay AgarwalRochester$101K
- Michelle ClarkeRochester$53K
- Jeremy FogelsonRochester$40K
- Giuseppe LanzinoRochester$37K
- Daniela StastnaRochester$10K
- Robert SpinnerRochester$9K
- Rushna AliRochester$8K
- Nikita LakomkinRochester$8K
- Ken PorcheRochester$7K
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.