Has Brian Palafox, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $40,455 in general payments to Brian Palafox, MD across 357 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 Brian Palafox, 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 Brian Palafox, 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.

Brian Palafox, MD

General Surgery · Orange, CANPI 1568424422

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

The money is spread across several categories — food and beverage (45.1%), travel and lodging and consulting fees — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 44 manufacturers reported payments, led by Edwards Lifesciences at 34.8% of the total. Among general surgery clinicians in CA with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 5% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.

$40,455in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 357 payments — averaging $113.32 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Edwards Lifesciences$14K
Atricure, Inc.$4K
Abiomed$3K
Intuitive Surgical$3K
Avanos Medical$2K
Baxter Healthcare$2K
plus $12K from 38 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$7,22218%
Speaking & faculty fees$2,2956%
Travel & lodging$12,68531%
Food & beverage$18,25345%

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
Edwards Lifesciences	94	$14,094
Atricure, Inc.	37	$4,215
Abiomed	21	$3,163
Intuitive Surgical	24	$2,858
Avanos Medical	5	$2,465
Baxter Healthcare	27	$1,842
Abbott	24	$1,646
Zimmer Biomet	14	$1,361
Saxum Surgical, Inc.	4	$1,149
Medtronic(2 entities)	16	$876
Veran Medical Technologies, Inc.	4	$824
Merit Medical Systems Inc	1	$800
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.	6	$601
Integra Lifesciences Corporation	17	$569
Cvrx, Inc.	4	$550
Arthrex	3	$482
Angiodynamics, Inc.	4	$453
Davol Inc.	6	$375
Johnson & Johnson(2 entities)	11	$369
Kestra Medical Technology Services, Inc.	3	$254
Artivion, Inc.	8	$240
ZOLL Medical Corporation	1	$196
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.	1	$148
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	1	$146
Acumed LLC	1	$126
Biotronik Inc.	1	$108
Bard Access Systems, Inc.	1	$76
Smith+Nephew	2	$57
On Target Laboratories, Inc	1	$50
Philips North America LLC	1	$49
Hemosonics LLC	1	$43
Pinnacle Biologics, Inc	1	$35
Applied Medical Technology Inc	1	$26
Haemonetics Corporation	1	$25
Octapharma USA, Inc.	1	$25
AstraZeneca	1	$23
Chiesi USA, Inc.	1	$22
Boston Scientific	1	$21
Aesculap, Inc.	1	$19
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.	1	$19
Cardiovascular Systems Inc.	1	$19
Grifols USA, LLC	1	$15
Convatec Inc.	1	$13
Wound Management Technologies, Inc	1	$8

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.

SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$2,960
ON-Q$2,295
Da Vinci Surgical System$2,243
Impella$2,212
ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM (CRYO2)$1,813
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$1,508
ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$1,403
AdvantageRib$993
MITRIS RESILIA Mitral Valve$923
Savi SCOUT$800
Spin$758
FLOSEAL$521
Barostim Neo System$499
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$429
PREVELEAK$381
Epic Stented Tissue Valve$328
Epic$303
Valiant Captivia$289
ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$278
2ND GEN CENTRIMAG PRIMARY CONSOLE$268

How this compares

$40,455 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 167 general surgery providers in California.

See all general surgery providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$113,255

Medicare patients

124

Services billed

316

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 general surgery in Orange

Daniel SwartzFresno$83K
Daniel MarcusMarina del Rey$43K
Houshmand NaimLos Angeles$33K
Carlos CorveraSan Francisco$25K
Stevan ClarkLos Angeles$16K
Yeong AhnLos Angeles$12K
Jane KakkisFountain Valley$12K
Michael DeveraLoma Linda$11K
Monica EigelbergerWalnut Creek$9K
Robert RettigLos Angeles$9K

See the full list for California →

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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