Has Douglas Babel, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $375 in general payments to Douglas Babel, MD across 3 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 Douglas Babel, 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 Douglas Babel, 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.

Douglas Babel, MD

Ophthalmology · Erie, PANPI 1285705491

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 100.0% of the total across 3 separate payments, which is the pattern of a clinician who attends manufacturer presentations rather than one with a consulting arrangement. Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. accounts for 66.6% of it on its own, with 1 other manufacturer making up the rest. That places this record below the midpoint for ophthalmology clinicians in PA, where the typical reported total is $1,202.

$375in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 3 payments — averaging $124.90 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.$250
Novartis$125

What the payments were for

Food & beverage$375100%

Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.

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
Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	2	$250
Novartis	1	$125

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.

Syfovre$125

How this compares

$375 in reported general payments places this provider in the 30th percentile of 920 ophthalmology providers in Pennsylvania.

See all ophthalmology providers in Pennsylvania →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$1,568,758

Medicare patients

1,282

Services billed

17,382

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
Prednisolone Acetate	171	$8,029
Latanoprost	318	$2,275
Timolol Maleate	71	$608
Dorzolamide-TimololDorzolamide Hcl/Timolol Maleat	11	$147

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other ophthalmology in Erie

David AlmeidaErie$734K
Julia HallerPhiladelphia$1.5M
Francis MahPittsburgh$1.1M
Brandon AyresBala Cynwyd$929K
Carl RegilloPlymouth Meeting$721K
Robert NoeckerPittsburgh$632K
Beeran MeghparaPhiladelphia$496K
Michael KlufasPlymouth Meeting$393K
Jonathan MyersPhiladelphia$359K
Mark BlecherPhiladelphia$357K

See the full list for Pennsylvania →

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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