Has Kelvin Higa, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $468,755 in general payments to Kelvin Higa, MD across 272 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 Kelvin Higa, 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 Kelvin Higa, 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.

Kelvin Higa, MD

Surgery · Fresno, CANPI 1356304224

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $383,653 of the $468,755 with a category attached, or 81.8%. Medical Device Business Services, Inc. accounts for 72.7% of it on its own, with 7 other manufacturers making up the rest. 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.

$468,755in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 272 payments — averaging $1723.37 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$341K
Covidien LP$63K
Johnson & Johnson$38K
Medtronic$10K
Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices & Diagnostics Group - Latin America, L.L.C.$9K
Ethicon Endo-surgery Inc.$6K
plus $1K from 2 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$383,65382%
Speaking & faculty fees$61,51513%
Travel & lodging$16,5404%
Food & beverage$7,0482%

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
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.	129	$340,756
Covidien LP	40	$63,022
Johnson & Johnson(2 entities)	62	$38,478
Medtronic	12	$10,053
Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices & Diagnostics Group - Latin America, L.L.C.	3	$8,902
Ethicon Endo-surgery Inc.	3	$6,397
KARL Storz Endoscopy-america	16	$840
Stryker	7	$309

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

$468,755 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 2,363 surgery providers in California.

See all surgery providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$118,028

Medicare patients

255

Services billed

449

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
Clinimix EAmino Ac 8 %/D14w/Electrolytes	12	$4,703
Lactated RingersRinger's Solution,lactated	25	$1,930
Sodium Chloride0.9 % Sodium Chloride	50	$839
Omeprazole	39	$421
Ondansetron Hcl	57	$354
Celecoxib	27	$351
Prochlorperazine Maleate	29	$313
Vancomycin Hcl	77	$311
Insulin SyringeSyringe And Needle,insulin,1ml	11	$100
Gabapentin	23	$22

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other surgery in Fresno

Siew-Ming LeeFresno$1.3M
Russell MartinFresno$156K
Timothy ChuterSan Francisco$8.8M
Santiago HorganSan Diego$2.8M
Rock LiuHayward$1.6M
David LouriePasadena$1.4M
Andrea PakulaThousand Oaks$1.4M
Beemen KhalilPalo Alto$1.1M
John LiphamLos Angeles$942K
Alexander NedopilLodi$682K

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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