Has David Spain, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $116,652 in general payments to David Spain, MD across 40 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 David Spain, 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 David Spain, 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.

David Spain, MD

Surgical Critical Care · Palo Alto, CANPI 1427190412

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $72,550 of the $116,652 with a category attached, or 62.2%. Merck accounts for 65.0% of it on its own, with 5 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $50,791 and has fallen 70.0% since, to $15,240 in 2025. Among surgical critical care 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.

$116,652in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 40 payments — averaging $2916.30 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Merck$76K
Stryker$40K
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$305
Teleflex LLC$187
Covidien LP$176
Johnson & Johnson$120

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$72,55062%
Travel & lodging$2,3192%
Food & beverage$1,3871%
Education$3050%
Other$40,09134%

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
Merck	34	$75,773
Stryker	1	$40,091
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.	1	$305
Teleflex LLC	2	$187
Covidien LP	1	$176
Johnson & Johnson	1	$120

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.

How this compares

$116,652 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 141 surgical critical care providers in California.

See all surgical critical care providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$123,347

Medicare patients

367

Services billed

683

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

Drug	Claims	Cost to plans & patients
Ondansetron HclOndansetron Hcl/Pf	13	$52

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other surgical critical care in Palo Alto

Thomas WeiserPalo Alto$5K
Aaron StrumwasserLynwood$200K
Demetrios DemetriadesLos Angeles$192K
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

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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