Has Richard Friedman, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $17,561 in general payments to Richard Friedman, MD across 150 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 Richard Friedman, 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 Richard Friedman, 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.

Richard Friedman, MD

Obstetrics · Burbank, CANPI 1285641837

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by education: $12,093 of the $17,561 with a category attached, or 68.9%. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 85.4% of it on its own, with 26 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2020 at $12,797 and has fallen 89.1% since, to $1,392 in 2025. Among obstetrics 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.

$17,561in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 150 payments — averaging $117.08 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Intuitive Surgical$15K
AbbVie$1K
Sumitomo Pharma America, Inc.$350
Astellas Pharma US Inc$142
AstraZeneca$124
Seagen Inc.$93
plus $825 from 21 others

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$6384%
Food & beverage$4,65627%
Education$12,09369%
Gifts$1751%

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	46	$15,002
AbbVie	51	$1,025
Sumitomo Pharma America, Inc.	12	$350
Astellas Pharma US Inc	6	$142
AstraZeneca	1	$124
Seagen Inc.	1	$93
Caris MPI, Inc.	3	$90
Eisai Inc.	3	$70
Merck	2	$69
Baxter Healthcare	1	$59
Daiichi Sankyo Inc.	2	$59
Mayne Pharma Commercial LLC	3	$57
Momentis Surgical Inc.	1	$54
Avion Pharmaceuticals	2	$47
Myovant Sciences Inc.	2	$38
Hologic Sales And Service, LLC	2	$38
Pfizer	1	$32
Ascend Therapeutics US, LLC	2	$32
Verastem, Inc.	1	$26
Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc.	1	$23
Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	1	$22
Mycovia Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	1	$21
Coopersurgical, Inc.	1	$20
Medtronic	1	$20
Therapeuticsmd, Inc.	1	$18
Dysis Medical, Inc.	1	$15
Teleflex LLC	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.

How this compares

$17,561 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 119 obstetrics providers in California.

See all obstetrics providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$130,689

Medicare patients

281

Services billed

709

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
Estradiol (Twice Weekly)Estradiol	15	$1,828
Estradiol	27	$1,738
DottiEstradiol	16	$1,127
Clobetasol Propionate	23	$703
Levonorgestrel-Eth EstradiolLevonorgestrel/Ethin.Estradiol	12	$267
Fluconazole	11	$182
Imiquimod	11	$121
Triamcinolone Acetonide	12	$58
Ibuprofen	18	$37
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	18	$37

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other obstetrics in Burbank

Peter WangGarden Grove$428K
Douglas Woelkersla Jolla$57K
Jennifer ByerSanta Rosa$17K
Omar AzizEl Centro$14K
Frederica LofquistSan Francisco$14K
Craig SafferSan Diego$14K
Caitlyn PainterSan Francisco$10K
Kay DanielsStanford$9K
Joie RussoEncino$8K
Tiffany PerryOrinda$8K

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.

Is this you, or does something look wrong? →