Rafael Sierra, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Rochester, MNNPI 1801875901
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $3,792,475 of the $4,885,142 with a category attached, or 77.6%. Zimmer Biomet accounts for 98.6% of it on its own, with 9 other manufacturers making up the rest. Among orthopaedic surgery clinicians in MN 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 352 payments — averaging $13,878 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Zimmer Biomet$4.8M
- Orthalign Inc$40K
- Think Surgical, Inc.$12K
- Linkbio Corp$9K
- Johnson & Johnson$5K
- Medacta USA, Inc.$2K
- plus $2K from 4 others
Across 11 payments — averaging $6158.93 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.
- Arthrex$34K
- Zimmer Biomet$33K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$3,792,47578%
- Consulting fees$1,046,76021%
- Travel & lodging$39,5161%
- Food & beverage$6,3910%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Zimmer Biomet | 304 | $4,814,732 |
| Orthalign Inc | 35 | $39,663 |
| Think Surgical, Inc. | 1 | $12,000 |
| Linkbio Corp | 1 | $9,341 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 2 | $5,296 |
| Medacta USA, Inc. | 5 | $2,309 |
| Gemini Medical LLC | 1 | $1,458 |
| Stryker | 1 | $167 |
| Gemini Mountain Medical, LLC | 1 | $152 |
| Arthrex | 1 | $24 |
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.
- G7$3,524,845
- OSS Orthopedic Salvage System$87,588
- Perfuse Instrumentation and Kits$48,767
- Vanguard Complete Knee Solution$45,105
- Oxford-Knees$29,685
- ORTHALIGN PLUS$29,223
- Oxford$25,207
- Perfuse$21,539
- Tsolution One Surgical System$12,000
- OrthAlign Plus System$9,907
- E1$7,407
- ETHICON$5,190
- VISTASEAL$5,190
- Hips Product Portfolio$2,250
- MECTA$2,100
- Persona$2,070
- PD-Hip-New Product$1,000
- ROSA$806
- MAKO$167
- AMIStem H Femoral Stems$126
How this compares
$4,885,142 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 533 orthopaedic surgery providers in Minnesota.
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 orthopaedic surgery in Rochester
- Daniel BerryRochester$21.5M
- Mark PagnanoRochester$14.8M
- Robert TrousdaleRochester$12.2M
- John SperlingRochester$12.2M
- Shawn O'DriscollRochester$10.5M
- David LewallenRochester$8M
- Joaquin Sanchez-SoteloRochester$4M
- Michael TauntonRochester$3.5M
- Arlen HanssenRochester$3.2M
- Matthew AbdelRochester$3.1M
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.