RxDoctor Payments Data

Steven Sterling, MD

Ophthalmology · Knoxville, TNNPI 1619985066

Payments from drug & device makers

$2,087in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 68 payments — averaging $30.69 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

  • Alcon$535
  • Microsurgical Technology, Inc.$456
  • AbbVie$308
  • Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision, Inc.$149
  • Glaukos Corporation$104
  • Rxsight Inc$100
  • plus $435 from 11 others

What the payments were for

  • Consulting fees$45622%
  • Speaking & faculty fees$281%
  • Food & beverage$1,59777%
  • Entertainment$60%

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

19
20
21
22
23
24
25

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.

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

$2,087 in reported general payments places this provider in the 55th percentile of 323 ophthalmology providers in Tennessee.

See all ophthalmology providers in Tennessee

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024
$393,890
Medicare patients
1,137
Services billed
3,578

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

DrugClaimsCost to plans & patients
LumiganBimatoprost135$61,070
Alphagan PBrimonidine Tartrate68$30,592
Prednisolone Acetate697$21,919
RestasisCyclosporine13$11,805
Brimonidine Tartrate132$8,509
Ketorolac Tromethamine509$8,438
Ofloxacin613$6,809
Latanoprost554$5,821
CombiganBrimonidine Tartrate/Timolol19$4,141
Brinzolamide11$2,866
Famciclovir20$723
Travoprost11$688
Dorzolamide-TimololDorzolamide Hcl/Timolol Maleat41$681
Neomycin-Polymyxin-DexamethNeomycin/Polymyxin B/Dexametha47$606
Dorzolamide Hcl29$562

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Companies that both paid and supply prescribed drugs

These companies both reported payments to this provider and make drugs the provider prescribed under Medicare Part D in 2024. For most specialties this overlap is expected — a cardiologist who is paid by a cardiology drugmaker also treats heart disease. It is shown so the reader can see it, not because it implies anything on its own.

CompanyPaid to this providerPart D cost of their drugs
AbbVieLumigan, Alphagan P, Restasis, Combigan$308$107,609235 claims

Reading this fairly. The Part D column is what drug plans and patients paid pharmacies — this provider received none of it, and it reflects how many patients they treat and what those drugs cost. Against peers, this provider's reported payments sit in the 55th percentile of 323 ophthalmology providers in Tennessee.

Other ophthalmology in Knoxville

See the full list for Tennessee

Where these figures come from

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