Sherry Melton, MD
Surgery · Birmingham, ALNPI 1609806090
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by education: $20,100 of the $28,599 with a category attached, or 70.3%. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 99.5% of it on its own, with 2 other manufacturers making up the rest. Among surgery clinicians in AL 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 89 payments — averaging $321.34 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$28K
- CSL Behring$99
- Z-medica, LLC$32
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$320%
- Travel & lodging$5,77420%
- Food & beverage$2,6689%
- Education$20,10070%
- Gifts$250%
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 | 86 | $28,467 |
| CSL Behring | 2 | $99 |
| Z-medica, LLC | 1 | $32 |
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$21,555
- DAVINCI XI$5,500
How this compares
$28,599 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 382 surgery providers in Alabama.
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.
Other surgery in Birmingham
- Cameron AskewBirmingham$236K
- John TouliatosBirmingham$75K
- Jayme LockeBirmingham$63K
- Eric DuboisBirmingham$36K
- Wesley DesselleBirmingham$21K
- Boris KiriazovBirmingham$17K
- Adam BeckBirmingham$17K
- Kristen WongBirmingham$11K
- Cynthia HlavacekBirmingham$9K
- Naveen SinganamalaBirmingham$9K
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.