Evan Sternberg, MD
Internal Medicine · Chicago, ILNPI 1285085902
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $7,006 of the $9,148 with a category attached, or 76.6%. It is spread thinly across 27 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 21.8% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. 2025 is the largest year on record at $2,893, more than ten times the $225 reported in 2019. Among internal medicine clinicians in IL 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.
Across 260 payments — averaging $35.18 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Penumbra, Inc.$2K
- Abiomed$2K
- ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)$966
- Johnson & Johnson$920
- Novartis$612
- Shockwave Medical, Inc$425
- plus $2K from 21 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$1,87220%
- Food & beverage$7,00677%
- Education$2703%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Penumbra, Inc. | 7 | $1,998 |
| Abiomed | 27 | $1,779 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 38 | $966 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 35 | $920 |
| Novartis | 31 | $612 |
| Shockwave Medical, Inc | 14 | $425 |
| AstraZeneca | 25 | $420 |
| Merck | 17 | $406 |
| Pfizer | 9 | $212 |
| Medtronic | 10 | $197 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 7 | $156 |
| Amgen | 6 | $135 |
| Bayer | 4 | $117 |
| Cardiovascular Systems Inc. | 5 | $114 |
| Teleflex LLC | 2 | $108 |
| Next Science LLC | 1 | $103 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 5 | $92 |
| Chiesi USA, Inc. | 1 | $72 |
| Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 3 | $57 |
| Abbott | 2 | $47 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 2 | $45 |
| Inari Medical, Inc. | 2 | $38 |
| Astellas Pharma US Inc | 2 | $36 |
| Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. | 2 | $36 |
| Stryker | 1 | $24 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $23 |
| Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. | 1 | $12 |
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.
- Indigo System$1,922
- Impella$1,140
- VERQUVO$241
- Shockwave IVL System with the Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL Catheter$113
- SurgX$103
- Xperience$103
How this compares
$9,148 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 5,182 internal medicine providers in Illinois.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Carvedilol | 11 | $81 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other internal medicine in Chicago
- Merle DiamondChicago$1.1M
- Robert KushnerChicago$516K
- Romeo UrsuaChicago$420K
- Peter O DonnellChicago$318K
- George UrbanChicago$258K
- Kristen PallokChicago$256K
- George NissanChicago$252K
- Luke LaffinChicago$162K
- Daniel CatenacciChicago$161K
- Hiren ShahChicago$144K
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.