Samer Tawakkol, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Houston, TXNPI 1518937358
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 17 payments — averaging $117.20 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Stryker$1K
- Encore Medical, LP$197
- Amgen$125
- AstraZeneca$124
- Heron Therapeutics, Inc.$73
- Zimmer Biomet$28
- plus $25 from 2 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$1,12857%
- Food & beverage$86543%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stryker | 9 | $1,420 |
| Encore Medical, LP | 2 | $197 |
| Amgen | 1 | $125 |
| AstraZeneca | 1 | $124 |
| Heron Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $73 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $28 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $14 |
| Team_makena_llc | 1 | $11 |
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.
- MAKO$1,128
- Otezla$125
- SAPHNELO$124
- DJO SURGICAL$107
How this compares
$1,992 in reported general payments places this provider in the 30th percentile of 1,337 orthopaedic surgery providers in Texas.
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 | 614 | $45,735 |
| EliquisApixaban | 73 | $25,167 |
| Ibandronate Sodium | 127 | $8,228 |
| Famotidine | 213 | $2,590 |
| Gabapentin | 112 | $1,666 |
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 163 | $1,525 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 37 | $1,058 |
| Doxycycline Monohydrate | 33 | $808 |
| Cephalexin | 83 | $730 |
| Ondansetron Hcl | 11 | $558 |
| Meloxicam | 28 | $281 |
| Levofloxacin | 20 | $273 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 34 | $243 |
| Clindamycin Hcl | 17 | $153 |
| Prednisone | 23 | $149 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Houston
- Stefan KreuzerHouston$7M
- Tiffany HuynhHouston$4.6M
- Stephen IncavoHouston$4.3M
- Thomas EdwardsHouston$4.3M
- Adam FreedhandHouston$1.8M
- Jeffrey KozakHouston$1.1M
- Travis HansonHouston$1M
- David VanderweideHouston$741K
- Thomas TanousHouston$698K
- Alan RechterHouston$605K
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.