Has Mark Stern, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $87,375 in general payments to Mark Stern, MD across 336 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 Mark Stern, 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 Mark Stern, 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.

Mark Stern, MD

Neurological Surgery · Escondido, CANPI 1649282765

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $70,400 of the $87,375 with a category attached, or 80.6%. Aurora Spine, Inc. accounts for 68.7% of it on its own, with 39 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $43,193 and has fallen 99.2% since, to $344 in 2025.

$87,375in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 336 payments — averaging $260.04 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Aurora Spine, Inc.$60K
Kyocera Medical Technologies, Inc.$10K
Medtronic$6K
Davol Inc.$3K
Si-bone, Inc.$2K
Nevro Corp.$2K
plus $4K from 34 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$70,40081%
Speaking & faculty fees$5,5006%
Travel & lodging$6771%
Food & beverage$10,76112%
Entertainment$380%

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
Aurora Spine, Inc.	5	$60,000
Kyocera Medical Technologies, Inc.	2	$10,400
Medtronic(2 entities)	143	$6,270
Davol Inc.	3	$3,035
Si-bone, Inc.	26	$2,008
Nevro Corp.	54	$1,924
Globus Medical(2 entities)	8	$730
Centinel Spine, LLC	12	$598
Zimmer Biomet	9	$464
Johnson & Johnson(2 entities)	14	$301
Stimwave Technologies Incorporated	2	$205
Tersera Therapeutics LLC	8	$164
Neuronetics, Inc.	5	$140
Integra Lifesciences Corporation	1	$132
Biedermann Motech, Inc.	1	$97
Misonix Inc	5	$95
Abbott	5	$84
Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	4	$71
Baxter Healthcare	2	$59
Wound Management Technologies, Inc	1	$52
Seaspine Orthopedics Corporation	2	$50
Providence Medical Technology, Inc.	1	$50
Painteq LLC	2	$41
Boston Scientific	2	$39
Vertos Medical, Inc.	2	$35
Saol Therapeutics Inc.	2	$35
Aesculap Implant Systems, LLC	1	$32
Next Science LLC	1	$31
Surgalign Spine Technologies, Inc.	1	$25
AbbVie	1	$23
Axogen	1	$22
Electronic Waveform Lab, Inc.	2	$22
Arteriocyte Medical Systems, Inc.	1	$21
KARL Storz Endoscopy-america	1	$19
Flowonix Medical Incorporated	1	$19
Spinal Elements, Inc.	1	$18
Analogic Corporation	1	$16
Piramal Critical Care	1	$16
Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc	1	$14
Convatec Inc.	1	$14

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.

AURORA SPINE$36,000
DISCOVERY/ECHO$24,000
iFuse Implant$954
INTELLIS ADAPTIVESTIM$765
Omnia$676
Excelsius Robotics System$351
SYNCHROMEDII$289
Mobi-C$242
PRODISC L$225
INTELLIS$191
CREO$140
CODMAN CERTAS$132
CUSA CLARITY$132
CODMAN HAKIM$132
DURASEAL EXACT SPINAL SEALANT SYSTEM$132
PRODISC C$117
Hedron$108
SYNCHROMED$101

How this compares

$87,375 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 773 neurological surgery providers in California.

See all neurological surgery providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$141,799

Medicare patients

128

Services billed

8,405

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
Meloxicam	170	$1,056
Baclofen	51	$932
Tramadol Hcl	114	$879
Gabapentin	79	$866
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	40	$782
Pregabalin	33	$726
Ibuprofen	27	$373
Levetiracetam	11	$280
Propranolol Hcl	25	$244
Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen	13	$218
Amoxicillin-Clavulanate PotassAmoxicillin/Potassium Clav	26	$191
Methylprednisolone	12	$121
Acetaminophen-CodeineAcetaminophen With Codeine	14	$96
Diazepam	14	$79

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other neurological surgery in Escondido

Christopher AmesSan Francisco$7.1M
Larry KhooLos Angeles$2.8M
Samy AbdouSan Diego$2.4M
Bret AbshireMurrieta$2.3M
William TaylorSan Diego$2.1M
Tooraj GravoriEncino$2M
Ali MesiwalaRancho Cucamonga$1.5M
Joseph OsorioSan Diego$1.3M
Ian JohnsonFresno$1.3M
Aaron Cohen-GadolLos Angeles$1.3M

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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