Paul Balash, MD
Surgery · Oak Lawn, ILNPI 1073741625
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by education: $193,750 of the $274,825 with a category attached, or 70.5%. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 82.2% of it on its own, with 7 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $72,855, 5.9 times the $12,403 reported in 2019. Among surgery clinicians in IL 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 318 payments — averaging $864.23 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$226K
- W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$26K
- CMR Surgical, Inc.$19K
- Stryker$2K
- Davol Inc.$930
- Medtronic$406
- plus $257 from 2 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$18,2457%
- Speaking & faculty fees$29,50011%
- Travel & lodging$15,1446%
- Food & beverage$18,1087%
- Education$193,75070%
- Gifts$780%
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 | 195 | $225,864 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 83 | $25,930 |
| CMR Surgical, Inc. | 14 | $19,337 |
| Stryker | 9 | $2,102 |
| Davol Inc. | 9 | $930 |
| Medtronic | 4 | $406 |
| Conmed Corporation | 3 | $241 |
| Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc | 1 | $16 |
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$223,333
- Versius Surgical System (Versius Plus)$19,019
- GORE SYNECOR Biomaterial$16,403
- GORE ENFORM Preperitoneal Biomaterial$8,499
- GORE BIO-A Tissue Reinforcement$3,834
- GORE SYNECOR Preperitoneal Biomaterial$2,610
- GORE ENFORM Intraperitoneal Biomaterial$2,296
- 1588 HD 3 CHIP CAMERA$1,605
- DA VINCI SP$1,000
- Product in Development$615
- ProGrip$373
- Phasix Mesh$366
- Balloon Sheath with Dilator$242
- 1688 HD 3 CHIP CAMERA$149
- 1588$141
- SPY TECHNOLOGY$118
- SYNECOR Biomaterial$118
How this compares
$274,825 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 1,180 surgery providers in Illinois.
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 | 107 | $420 |
| Sulfamethoxazole-TrimethoprimSulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim | 12 | $7 |
| Metoclopramide Hcl | 13 | $6 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery in Oak Lawn
- Jaishankar RamanBurr Ridge$1.6M
- Reza GamagamiNew Lenox$1.2M
- Francesco BiancoChicago$1M
- Mark KeldahlChicago$765K
- Barry RosenBarrington$443K
- Douglas JonesChampaign$425K
- Rami LutfiChicago$411K
- Paul VanaDowners Grove$368K
- Erik BorncampNew Lenox$364K
- Michael UjikiEvanston$276K
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.