Howard Kaufman
Surgery · Pasadena, CANPI 1912939604
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by speaking fees: $55,159 of the $78,970 with a category attached, or 69.8%. 24 manufacturers reported payments, led by Merck at 37.9% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $43,691 and has fallen 100.0% since, to $16 in 2025. Among surgery clinicians in CA 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 175 payments — averaging $451.25 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Merck$30K
- Medtronic$14K
- Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC$11K
- Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated$10K
- Covidien LP$9K
- Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc.$3K
- plus $2K from 18 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$8,36011%
- Speaking & faculty fees$55,15970%
- Travel & lodging$7,51910%
- Food & beverage$7,90810%
- Education$240%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Merck | 41 | $29,936 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 38 | $13,567 |
| Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC | 8 | $10,788 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 20 | $10,355 |
| Covidien LP | 24 | $9,284 |
| Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $3,003 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 9 | $854 |
| Intuitive Surgical | 5 | $208 |
| Palette Life Sciences, Inc. | 6 | $170 |
| Prescient Surgical | 2 | $164 |
| Axonics, Inc. | 5 | $95 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $89 |
| Caldera Medical, Inc | 1 | $76 |
| Applied Medical Resources Corporation | 1 | $63 |
| Stryker | 1 | $62 |
| Heron Therapeutics, Inc. | 3 | $56 |
| Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc. | 2 | $40 |
| Conmed Corporation | 1 | $34 |
| Vioptix Inc | 1 | $29 |
| TEI Biosciences Inc | 1 | $28 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 1 | $18 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $16 |
| AstraZeneca | 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.
How this compares
$78,970 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 2,363 surgery providers in California.
Other surgery in Pasadena
- David LouriePasadena$1.4M
- Timothy ChuterSan Francisco$8.8M
- Santiago HorganSan Diego$2.8M
- Rock LiuHayward$1.6M
- Andrea PakulaThousand Oaks$1.4M
- Siew-Ming LeeFresno$1.3M
- Beemen KhalilPalo Alto$1.1M
- John LiphamLos Angeles$942K
- Alexander NedopilLodi$682K
- Barry GardinerSan Ramon$602K
Where these figures come from
- Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
- Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.