Caroline Simon, MD
Surgery · Houston, TXNPI 1790903524
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (42.3%), food and beverage and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 26 manufacturers reported payments, led by Intuitive Surgical at 47.5% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $5,518 and has fallen 83.8% since, to $896 in 2025.
Across 122 payments — averaging $82.47 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$5K
- Transmedics, Inc.$1K
- Johnson & Johnson$620
- AbbVie$410
- Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.$351
- Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc.$264
- plus $2K from 20 others
Across 1 payment — averaging $132,531 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.
- Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC$133K
What the payments were for
- Speaking & faculty fees$4,25342%
- Travel & lodging$2,07121%
- Food & beverage$3,73837%
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 | 7 | $4,779 |
| Transmedics, Inc. | 1 | $1,451 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 3 | $620 |
| AbbVie | 23 | $410 |
| Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 12 | $351 |
| Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc. | 6 | $264 |
| Medtronic | 7 | $249 |
| Merck | 11 | $245 |
| Eisai Inc. | 9 | $192 |
| Biom'up France SAS | 1 | $189 |
| AstraZeneca | 8 | $174 |
| Dilon Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $168 |
| Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC | 7 | $145 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $100 |
| Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corporation | 1 | $100 |
| Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. | 4 | $95 |
| Davol Inc. | 2 | $94 |
| Madrigal Pharmaceuticals | 4 | $65 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 2 | $65 |
| Smith+Nephew | 2 | $62 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 2 | $61 |
| Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 3 | $60 |
| Kerecis Limited | 1 | $40 |
| Melinta Therapeutics, LLC | 2 | $35 |
| Incyte Corporation | 1 | $23 |
| Sirtex Medical Inc | 1 | $23 |
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$4,732
- ORGAN CARE SYSTEM$1,451
- HemoBlast Bellows$357
- Envarsus$222
- TERLIVAZ$122
- PREVENA$100
- uTASWako AFP-L3$100
How this compares
$10,062 in reported general payments places this provider in the 70th percentile of 1,830 surgery providers in Texas.
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 surgery in Houston
- James SuliburkHouston$161K
- Funda MericHouston$141K
- Jonathan StahlHouston$105K
- Richard KnightHouston$103K
- Tanyaradzwa KajeseHouston$92K
- Michael HarkinsTomball$2.7M
- Douglas StoddardAustin$1.4M
- Steven FassAustin$989K
- Vineet ChoudhryAustin$851K
- Andy HawthorneRound Rock$843K
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.