Richard Distefano, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Syracuse, NYNPI 1972608586
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 37 payments — averaging $244.62 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Saluda Medical Americas, Inc.$7K
- Smith+Nephew$504
- Nevro Corp.$448
- Globus Medical$234
- Boston Scientific$225
- Abbott$154
- plus $408 from 4 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$5,91365%
- Travel & lodging$8429%
- Food & beverage$2,29725%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Saluda Medical Americas, Inc. | 6 | $7,079 |
| Smith+Nephew | 7 | $504 |
| Nevro Corp. | 1 | $448 |
| Globus Medical | 4 | $234 |
| Boston Scientific | 7 | $225 |
| Abbott | 2 | $154 |
| Xtant Medical Inc | 1 | $151 |
| Medtronic | 2 | $127 |
| Stryker | 6 | $123 |
| Heraeus Medical, LLC. | 1 | $7 |
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.
- Evoke SCS$7,055
- Senza Spinal Cord Stimulation System$448
- TRIGEN InterTAN$237
- EVOS$146
- Excelsius - GPS$124
- PROCLAIM$120
- INTELLIS ADAPTIVESTIM$105
How this compares
$9,051 in reported general payments places this provider in the 45th percentile of 161 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in New York.
See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in New York →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oxycodone Hcl | 24 | $180 |
| Methylprednisolone | 11 | $66 |
| Lorazepam | 15 | $11 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Syracuse
- Hansen YuanSyracuse$31.7M
- Justin IorioSyracuse$119K
- Aaron BiancoSyracuse$49K
- Frank CammisaNew York$6.2M
- Frank SchwabNew York$5.1M
- Han KimNew York$4M
- Todd AlbertNew York$3M
- Jeffrey SpivakNew York$1.3M
- Aaron BucklandNew York$1.2M
- Andrew SamaNy$942K
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.