General Surgery in Montana
9 providers, $153,433 in total reported payments from drug and device makers. Ranked below by lifetime general payments.
Ranking high here usually means a consulting or royalty arrangement, not wrongdoing. Payments to device inventors and trial investigators are legal, disclosed, and concentrated in a small number of people — which is exactly why a list like this has a steep top and a long flat tail.
What Medicare pays general surgery clinicians in Montana
Across 9 general surgery clinicians in Montana who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $999,208 in total — an average of $111,023 each, of which $111,023 was for services and the rest for drugs administered in the office.
This is not a salary. The rest is what Medicare allowed for services these clinicians billed — Original Medicare fee-for-service only. It excludes Medicare Advantage, which now covers more than half of Medicare enrollees, along with Medicaid and every commercial insurer, so for most clinicians it is a fraction of their practice. It is also gross revenue: staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums all come out of it before anyone is paid. Anyone quoting a figure like this as physician pay is misreading it.
Ranked by reported payments
- 1Jeffrey RentzBillings$153,136
- 2Daniel DernbachBillings$296
- 3Gardner SmithLewistown$0
- 4Stephen MilheimShelby$0
- 5Joe LealGlendive$0
- 6Bryan PotterBillings$0
- 7Lance ErcanbrackLibby$0
- 8John PenderBillings$0
- 9Philip CardanWhitefish$0