Sameer Alrefai, MD
Surgery · South Boston, VANPI 1205141819
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — travel and lodging (42.0%), food and beverage and education — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 64.7% of it on its own, with 14 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $8,557 and has fallen 74.8% since, to $2,158 in 2025. Among surgery clinicians in VA 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 122 payments — averaging $191.90 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$15K
- W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$7K
- Davol Inc.$784
- TELA Bio, Inc.$74
- AbbVie$52
- Novo Nordisk$48
- plus $204 from 9 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$9,84142%
- Food & beverage$6,92730%
- Education$6,50028%
- Gifts$1441%
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 | 45 | $15,144 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 60 | $7,105 |
| Davol Inc. | 3 | $784 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 2 | $74 |
| AbbVie | 1 | $52 |
| Novo Nordisk | 2 | $48 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $43 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $29 |
| Acera Surgical, Inc. | 1 | $28 |
| Intra-sana Laboratories | 1 | $23 |
| Lilly USA, LLC | 1 | $18 |
| Convatec Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $15 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $13 |
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.
- DAVINCI XI$6,500
- Da Vinci Surgical System$6,261
- GORE BIO-A Tissue Reinforcement$2,243
- SEAMGUARD$2,216
- DA VINCI SP$1,775
- Balloon Sheath with Dilator$242
- Phasix Mesh$170
- GORE SEAMGUARD Bioabsorbable Staple Line Reinforce$165
- GORE ENFORM Preperitoneal Biomaterial$128
- GORE SYNECOR Biomaterial$117
How this compares
$23,412 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 675 surgery providers in Virginia.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Celecoxib | 13 | $75 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery in South Boston
- Raymond MakhoulRichmond$1.5M
- Zobair YounossiFalls Church$1.2M
- Yassar YoussefNorfolk$1M
- David WeintrittAlexandria$555K
- Hazem ElarinyVienna$368K
- George GillianLorton$214K
- Joseph GreeneReston$187K
- Lamiere DowningChristiansburg$175K
- Amanda CoxSalem$142K
- Christopher NorthupCharlottesville$117K
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.