Caroline Butler, MD
Surgical Critical Care · Salinas, CANPI 1104060144
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — education (59.2%), travel and lodging and food and beverage — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 88.8% of it on its own, with 7 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $6,050, more than ten times the $232 reported in 2019.
Across 28 payments — averaging $241.32 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$6K
- Johnson & Johnson$297
- Z-medica, LLC$167
- Prytime Medical Devices, Inc.$115
- Kls-martin L.p.$101
- Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc.$35
- plus $46 from 2 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$1672%
- Travel & lodging$1,41621%
- Food & beverage$1,17417%
- Education$4,00059%
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 | 13 | $5,997 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 4 | $297 |
| Z-medica, LLC | 1 | $167 |
| Prytime Medical Devices, Inc. | 1 | $115 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 6 | $101 |
| Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc. | 1 | $35 |
| Avanos Medical | 1 | $28 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $17 |
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.
- DAVINCI XI$4,000
- Da Vinci Surgical System$1,765
- QuikClot$167
- Control+$167
- VISTASEAL$119
- Proximate$119
- Enseal$119
- SURGIFLO Hemostatic Matrix$119
- ER-REBOA$115
- ECHELON FLEX Stapler$111
- Echelon Powered Circular$111
How this compares
$6,757 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 141 surgical critical care providers in California.
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 surgical critical care in Salinas
- Aaron StrumwasserLynwood$200K
- Demetrios DemetriadesLos Angeles$192K
- David SpainPalo Alto$117K
- Brian LugoPasadena$61K
- Matthew BloomSan Jose$42K
- Scott CunneenLos Angeles$35K
- Nicholas NissenLos Angeles$26K
- Alan PangFresno$22K
- Amy LiepertSan Diego$22K
- Daniel MarguliesLos Angeles$15K
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.