Gregory Sachs, MD
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by education: $8,000 of the $9,090 with a category attached, or 88.0%. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 98.2% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2020 at $4,478 and has fallen 99.1% since, to $38 in 2024.
Across 23 payments — averaging $395.22 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$9K
- Smith+Nephew$34
- Covidien LP$32
- Kerecis Limited$23
- Heron Therapeutics, Inc.$18
- Stryker$18
- plus $39 from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$2533%
- Food & beverage$8379%
- Education$8,00088%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical | 14 | $8,926 |
| Smith+Nephew | 2 | $34 |
| Covidien LP | 1 | $32 |
| Kerecis Limited | 1 | $23 |
| Heron Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Stryker | 1 | $18 |
| Therapeuticsmd, Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $13 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $13 |
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.
- Da Vinci Surgical System$8,759
How this compares
$9,090 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 331 surgery providers in Iowa.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 59 | $318 |
| Doxycycline Hyclate | 14 | $138 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 17 | $22 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery in Ames
- Teresa LamastersWest Des Moines$188K
- Christopher HealeyWaterloo$140K
- Vincent ReidCedar Rapids$103K
- Dennis WhitmerDes Moines$40K
- Jason KeoninSpencer$39K
- Isaac HintonBettendorf$32K
- Patrick AhrensCouncil Bluffs$27K
- Maggie Limoges-DaviesClinton$26K
- Scott HinzeWaterloo$25K
- Mark SmolikDes Moines$25K
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.