Thomas Pfiffner, MD
Neurology · Buffalo, NYNPI 1477780054
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 99.6% of the total across 561 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 60 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 12.9% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $2,542 and has fallen 88.8% since, to $284 in 2025.
Across 561 payments — averaging $18.98 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- MDD US Operations, LLC$1K
- Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.$817
- AbbVie$569
- SK Life Science, Inc.$565
- Lundbeck LLC$525
- Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc.$504
- plus $6K from 54 others
Across 6 payments — averaging $33,003 each. An ownership or investment interest held by the physician or an immediate family member.
- Neurology Practice Consortium GPO, LLC$198K
What the payments were for
- Speaking & faculty fees$430%
- Food & beverage$10,605100%
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.
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
$10,648 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 1,623 neurology providers in New York.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lidocaine | 13 | $1,177 |
| Levetiracetam | 28 | $926 |
| Divalproex Sodium ErDivalproex Sodium | 13 | $507 |
| Donepezil Hcl | 24 | $228 |
| Gabapentin | 12 | $91 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other neurology in Buffalo
- Gil WolfeBuffalo$617K
- David HojnackiBuffalo$480K
- Bianca Weinstock GuttmanBuffalo$288K
- Idan SharonBrooklyn$2.1M
- Allan PerelStaten Island$1.7M
- Nicolas SaikaliAmherst$1.5M
- David KreitzmanCommack$1.5M
- Charles ArgoffAlbany$1.2M
- Stephen KriegerNew York$1.1M
- Robert FeketeHawthorne$1M
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.