Robert Plews, MD
Transplant Surgery · Cincinnati, OHNPI 1205156205
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $416 of the $638 with a category attached, or 65.2%. 6 manufacturers reported payments, led by Intuitive Surgical at 45.3% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $321 and has fallen 56.4% since, to $140 in 2025. That places this record below the midpoint for transplant surgery clinicians in OH, where the typical reported total is $1,754.
Across 16 payments — averaging $39.85 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$289
- Amgen$140
- Lemaitre Vascular, Inc.$92
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.$51
- Shionogi Inc$46
- Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC$21
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$22235%
- Food & beverage$41665%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
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 | 4 | $289 |
| Amgen | 1 | $140 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 6 | $92 |
| Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. | 2 | $51 |
| Shionogi Inc | 2 | $46 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 1 | $21 |
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$222
- Tavneos$140
How this compares
$638 in reported general payments places this provider in the 40th percentile of 43 transplant surgery providers in Ohio.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Atovaquone | 11 | $2,576 |
| Valganciclovir Hcl | 12 | $1,338 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other transplant surgery in Cincinnati
- Ervin WoodleCincinnati$200K
- Ralph QuillinCincinnati$132K
- David GerberCincinnati$9K
- Martha EstradaCincinnati$5K
- Steven RudichCincinnati$4K
- Amit TevarCincinnati$3K
- Alex ChangCincinnati$2K
- Philippe PaciCincinnati$1K
- Christine HaugenCincinnati$595
- Sara-Catherine ZinggCincinnati$515
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.