Dennis Kao, MD
Surgery of the Hand · Seattle, WANPI 1265503619
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $2,400 of the $3,747 with a category attached, or 64.1%. Checkpoint Surgical, Inc accounts for 81.7% of it on its own, with 6 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $2,628 and has fallen 93.0% since, to $184 in 2025.
Across 14 payments — averaging $267.63 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Checkpoint Surgical, Inc$3K
- Integra Lifesciences Corporation$373
- Stryker$125
- Axogen$80
- Dilon Technologies, Inc.$50
- Endo USA, Inc.$40
- plus $18 from 1 others
Across 10 payments — averaging $1450.45 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.
- Axogen$15K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$2,40064%
- Travel & lodging$42311%
- Food & beverage$92425%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Checkpoint Surgical, Inc | 4 | $3,062 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 3 | $373 |
| Stryker | 2 | $125 |
| Axogen | 1 | $80 |
| Dilon Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $50 |
| Endo USA, Inc. | 2 | $40 |
| Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 1 | $18 |
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.
- Checkpoint Stimulators$2,973
- INTEGRA$722
- INTEGRA DERMAL REGENERATION TEMPLATE$289
- OMNIGRAFT$145
- SURGIMEND$145
- PRIMATRIX$144
How this compares
Too few surgery of the hand providers in Washingtonto place this figure against a meaningful peer group, so we don't.
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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Doxycycline Hyclate | 128 | $967 |
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 142 | $463 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 112 | $405 |
| Gabapentin | 15 | $67 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 16 | $54 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery of the hand in Seattle
- Jeffrey FriedrichSeattle$1K
- Gary KegelSeattle$1K
- Erin MillerSeattle$621
- Joseph WoodwardKirkland$26K
- Richard GreenVancouver$9K
- Kyle EdwardsSpokane$5K
- Michael BlatnerBurien$2K
- Cynthia SuEverett$1K
- James EdwardsEverett$638
- Jacob DideschWenatchee$540
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.