Has Erma Benitez, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $1,463 in general payments to Erma Benitez, MD across 31 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 Erma Benitez, 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 Erma Benitez, 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.

Erma Benitez, MD

Dermatology · Los Angeles, CANPI 1972635282

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by food and beverage: $963 of the $1,463 with a category attached, or 65.8%. 10 manufacturers reported payments, led by 3M Company at 34.2% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $1,141 and has fallen 90.4% since, to $110 in 2025. That places this record below the midpoint for dermatology clinicians in CA, where the typical reported total is $1,655.

$1,463in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 31 payments — averaging $47.19 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

3M Company$500
Ortho Dermatologics, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC$293
Pfizer$196
Bristol Myers Squibb$142
Stemline Therapeutics Inc.$86
Incyte Corporation$79
plus $167 from 4 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$50034%
Food & beverage$96366%

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
3M Company	1	$500
Ortho Dermatologics, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC	7	$293
Pfizer	12	$196
Bristol Myers Squibb	2	$142
Stemline Therapeutics Inc.	1	$86
Incyte Corporation	2	$79
LEO Pharma Inc.	2	$68
Boehringer Ingelheim	1	$51
Galderma Laboratories, L.p.	2	$30
Mayne Pharma Commercial LLC	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.

Codran Tape$500
ALTRENO$125

How this compares

$1,463 in reported general payments places this provider in the 45th percentile of 1,875 dermatology providers in California.

See all dermatology providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$11,127

Medicare patients

Services billed

102

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
Calcipotriene	11	$2,579
Betamethasone Dipropionate	26	$1,175
Fluocinolone Acetonide	13	$484
Ketoconazole	31	$306
Triamcinolone Acetonide	18	$138

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other dermatology in Los Angeles

April ArmstrongLos Angeles$2.3M
Jennifer HsiaoLos Angeles$746K
Christopher HoLos Angeles$731K
Howard SofenLos Angeles$345K
Nada ElbulukLos Angeles$297K
Derek JonesLos Angeles$272K
Pearl GrimesLos Angeles$256K
Paul YamauchiSanta Monica$2.9M
Jennifer SoungSanta Ana$2.8M
Robert GreenbergLivermore$2.6M

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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