James Schuster, MD
Neurological Surgery · Philadelphia, PANPI 1932136868
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by speaking fees: $10,250 of the $16,715 with a category attached, or 61.3%. Synthes GmbH accounts for 97.9% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $6,195 and has fallen 56.7% since, to $2,685 in 2025.
Across 37 payments — averaging $451.75 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Synthes GmbH$16K
- Stryker$139
- Akcea Therapeutics, Inc.$90
- Zimmer Biomet$30
- Medtronic$25
- AstraZeneca$18
- plus $42 from 3 others
Across 12 payments — averaging $11,267 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.
- AbbVie$62K
- Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Development America, Inc.$41K
- Tanabe Pharma America, Inc.$25K
- Janssen Research & Development, LLC$7K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$1,5009%
- Speaking & faculty fees$10,25061%
- Travel & lodging$4,24025%
- Food & beverage$7254%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Synthes GmbH | 20 | $16,372 |
| Stryker | 4 | $139 |
| Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. | 7 | $90 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $30 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $25 |
| AstraZeneca | 1 | $18 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 1 | $16 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 1 | $13 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $13 |
How this compares
$16,715 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 390 neurological surgery providers in Pennsylvania.
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.
Other neurological surgery in Philadelphia
- Amer SamdaniPhiladelphia$4.4M
- Brian JankowitzPhiladelphia$823K
- Joshua HellerPhiladelphia$519K
- Srinivas PrasadPhiladelphia$513K
- Chengyuan WuPhiladelphia$377K
- John ShinPhiladelphia$306K
- Omar ChoudhriPhiladelphia$304K
- Pascal JabbourPhiladelphia$198K
- Casey HalpernPhiladelphia$186K
- Steven FulopPhiladelphia$140K
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.