Has Steve Kwak, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $60,296 in general payments to Steve Kwak, MD across 329 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Steve Kwak, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Steve Kwak, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Steve Kwak, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery · van Nuys, CANPI 1013131705

Payments from drug & device makers

$60,296in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 329 payments — averaging $183.27 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Smith+Nephew$23K
Arthrex$11K
Stryker$8K
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$7K
Saxum Surgical, Inc.$3K
Johnson & Johnson$2K
plus $6K from 32 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$22,20037%
Speaking & faculty fees$8,01213%
Travel & lodging$13,72723%
Food & beverage$13,72323%
Education$2,6344%

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
Smith+Nephew	95	$22,922
Arthrex	22	$10,606
Stryker(2 entities)	60	$8,041
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.	8	$7,008
Saxum Surgical, Inc.	8	$2,822
Johnson & Johnson	56	$2,499
Depuy Synthes Products, Inc.	3	$1,496
Elite Orthopedics, LLC	1	$1,434
Zimmer Biomet	10	$1,046
Innovation Technologies Inc	3	$248
Vericel Corporation	8	$229
Micromed Inc	2	$168
Arcuro Medical Inc	1	$164
Amgen	16	$162
Osteoremedies, LLC	1	$159
Lima USA, Inc.	1	$150
Embody, Inc.	1	$134
Exactech, Inc.	1	$129
Heron Therapeutics, Inc.	1	$120
Pacira Therapeutics, Inc.	5	$82
Globus Medical	2	$67
Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc.	2	$62
Kinamed, Inc.	1	$58
Bioventus LLC	2	$55
Seapearl East, Inc	1	$54
Nalu Medical, Inc.	2	$47
AstraZeneca	1	$42
Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc.	2	$42
Orthofix Medical, Inc.	1	$37
Heraeus Medical, LLC.	2	$37
Zyla Life Sciences, Inc.	2	$28
Si-bone, Inc.	1	$28
Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC	2	$28
Relievant Medsystems, Inc.	1	$27
Linvatec Corporation	1	$21
Axogen	1	$18
Fidia Pharma USA Inc.	1	$15
Iroko Pharmaceuticals, LLC	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.

MICRORAPTOR$8,100
MINITAC$8,100
Coblation$3,900
Capture$3,900
HIP ARTHROSCOPY ACCESS & INSTRUMENTATION SET$3,461
Q-FIX$3,405
ACCUPASS DIRECT Crescent XL$2,427
Bioraptor Knotless$2,326
SPEEDLOCK HIP$2,273
Suturefix$2,163
BLUEPRINT PATIENT SPECIFIC INSTRUMENTATION$1,700
DYNACORD$1,133
INHANCE$994
Acufex$899
NA$675
NANO TACT FLEX$580
RIGIDLOOP$500
Persona$494
AEQUALIS PERFORM REVERSED$463
Bioknotless Ethibond$450

How this compares

$60,296 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 1,808 orthopaedic surgery providers in California.

See all orthopaedic surgery providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$300,341

Medicare patients

520

Services billed

9,012

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
Diclofenac Sodium	34	$514
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	25	$226
Ibuprofen	13	$192
Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen	14	$141
Tramadol Hcl	25	$110

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery in van Nuys

Bradford HackArcadia$18.3M
Robert GorabOrange$14.5M
Kelly VinceLos Angeles$9.6M
Stephen HowellSacramento$9.4M
Thomas CoonRed Bluff$9.2M
Peter NewtonSan Diego$7M
Nirav AminPlacentia$5.8M
Tom NorrisSan Francisco$5.3M
Jay LiebermanLos Angeles$4.8M
Sigurd BervenSan Francisco$4.1M

See the full list for California →

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.

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