Steven Sotman, MD
Infectious Disease · Fort Worth, TXNPI 1114971132
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $2,137 of the $2,376 with a category attached, or 90.0%. 14 manufacturers reported payments, led by Merck at 26.4% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $1,366 and has fallen 91.7% since, to $113 in 2024.
Across 75 payments — averaging $31.68 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Merck$626
- Gilead$578
- Viiv Healthcare Company$389
- Johnson & Johnson$206
- Insmed, Inc.$143
- Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc.$113
- plus $320 from 8 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$2,13790%
- Education$23910%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Merck | 18 | $626 |
| Gilead | 11 | $578 |
| Viiv Healthcare Company | 17 | $389 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 16 | $206 |
| Insmed, Inc. | 3 | $143 |
| Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $113 |
| Janssen Products, LP | 1 | $99 |
| Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC | 1 | $96 |
| Theratechnologies Inc. | 2 | $37 |
| CSL Behring | 1 | $25 |
| Astellas Pharma US Inc | 1 | $18 |
| Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C. | 1 | $17 |
| Mayne Pharma Commercial LLC | 1 | $16 |
| Shionogi Inc | 1 | $12 |
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
$2,376 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 576 infectious disease 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Meropenem | 12 | $1,637 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other infectious disease in Fort Worth
- Cedric SpakFort Worth$427K
- Cheryl McDonaldFort Worth$179K
- Daniel BarbaroFort Worth$44K
- Elizabeth RaceDallas$1.5M
- Ogechika AlozieEl Paso$834K
- Joseph GatheHouston$695K
- Roy ChemalyHouston$686K
- Ben BarnettHouston$424K
- Uriel SandkovskyDallas$320K
- Amar SafdarHouston$284K
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.