RxDoctor Payments Data

Brent Kovacs, MD

Gastroenterology · Santa Barbara, CANPI 1730296542

Payments from drug & device makers

$405in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 12 payments — averaging $33.76 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

  • Mauna Kea Technologies, Inc.$143
  • Braintree Laboratories, Inc.$89
  • AbbVie$46
  • Pfizer$30
  • Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc.$27
  • Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc.$25
  • plus $44 from 2 others

What the payments were for

  • Food & beverage$28671%
  • Education$308%
  • Gifts$8922%

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

20
21
23
24
25

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.

How this compares

$405 in reported general payments places this provider in the 25th percentile of 1,885 gastroenterology providers in California.

See all gastroenterology providers in California

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024
$317,465
Medicare patients
1,056
Services billed
3,269

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

DrugClaimsCost to plans & patients
CreonLipase/Protease/Amylase42$101,718
ZenpepLipase/Protease/Amylase22$94,926
XifaxanRifaximin12$36,037
LinzessLinaclotide12$12,843
Budesonide EcBudesonide28$12,617
Sod Sulf-Potass Sulf-Mag SulfSodium, Potassium,mag Sulfates119$8,210
Budesonide DrBudesonide18$3,996
Sucralfate35$3,013
Omeprazole167$1,844
CholestyramineCholestyramine (With Sugar)34$1,779
Famotidine34$627
Dicyclomine Hcl13$405
Pantoprazole Sodium29$308
Nortriptyline Hcl13$246
Hydrocortisone16$122

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Companies that both paid and supply prescribed drugs

These companies both reported payments to this provider and make drugs the provider prescribed under Medicare Part D in 2024. For most specialties this overlap is expected — a cardiologist who is paid by a cardiology drugmaker also treats heart disease. It is shown so the reader can see it, not because it implies anything on its own.

CompanyPaid to this providerPart D cost of their drugs
AbbVieCreon, Linzess$46$114,56154 claims

Reading this fairly. The Part D column is what drug plans and patients paid pharmacies — this provider received none of it, and it reflects how many patients they treat and what those drugs cost. Against peers, this provider's reported payments sit in the 25th percentile of 1,885 gastroenterology providers in California.

Other gastroenterology in Santa Barbara

See the full list for California

Where these figures come from

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