Stephen Benson, DPM
Foot & Ankle Surgery · Thousand Oaks, CANPI 1508885278
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 100.0% of the total across 15 separate payments, which is the pattern of a clinician who attends manufacturer presentations rather than one with a consulting arrangement. It is spread thinly across 10 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 19.5% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. That places this record below the midpoint for foot & ankle surgery clinicians in CA, where the typical reported total is $2,067.
Across 15 payments — averaging $45.73 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Amgen$134
- Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.$125
- Melinta Therapeutics, LLC$122
- Cardiovascular Systems Inc.$105
- Treace Medical Concepts, Inc.$64
- Bioventus LLC$46
- plus $90 from 4 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$686100%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Amgen | 2 | $134 |
| Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $125 |
| Melinta Therapeutics, LLC | 1 | $122 |
| Cardiovascular Systems Inc. | 2 | $105 |
| Treace Medical Concepts, Inc. | 2 | $64 |
| Bioventus LLC | 1 | $46 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 3 | $29 |
| Organogenesis Inc. | 1 | $27 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $23 |
| Paragon 28, Inc. | 1 | $10 |
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
$686 in reported general payments places this provider in the 30th percentile of 1,126 foot & ankle surgery providers in California.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| CiclopiroxCiclopirox Olamine | 89 | $2,614 |
| Ciclopirox | 28 | $403 |
| Triamcinolone Acetonide | 12 | $311 |
| Mupirocin | 24 | $187 |
| Amoxicillin-Clavulanate PotassAmoxicillin/Potassium Clav | 16 | $150 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 12 | $148 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 19 | $121 |
| Doxycycline Hyclate | 12 | $104 |
| Cephalexin | 15 | $35 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other foot & ankle surgery in Thousand Oaks
- Ryan SherickThousand Oaks$104K
- Eric GizaSacramento$3.6M
- Thomas HarrisPasadena$3M
- Thomas ChangSanta Rosa$2M
- Michael CoughlinSan Francisco$1.6M
- Vladimir ZeetserEncino$677K
- Jason NowakRedding$526K
- Candice BradyCamarillo$462K
- Andrew HsuOrange$456K
- Eric TanLos Angeles$447K
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.