Surgical: industry payments
Drug and device makers reported $23,081,460 in payments to providers registered in this specialty across Open Payments program years 2019–2025.
- Providers
- 12,050
- Received a payment
- 12,048 (100.0%)
- Total reported
- $23.1M
- Average, those paid
- $1,916
The average is computed only over providers who received something, because including the 2 who received nothing would produce a number that describes neither group. Totals are dominated by a small number of large royalty and consulting arrangements; the typical payment in this specialty is far smaller than the average implies.
What Medicare pays surgical clinicians
Across 7,973 surgical clinicians who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $270,477,439 in total — an average of $33,924 each, of which $27,266 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.
By state
| State | Providers | Total reported | Per provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 1,018 | $3,698,222 | $3,633 |
| New York | 1,544 | $2,524,182 | $1,635 |
| California | 729 | $2,333,941 | $3,202 |
| Texas | 804 | $1,843,125 | $2,292 |
| Georgia | 372 | $1,313,392 | $3,531 |
| Washington | 404 | $1,117,180 | $2,765 |
| New Jersey | 462 | $972,091 | $2,104 |
| Pennsylvania | 626 | $930,288 | $1,486 |
| Connecticut | 568 | $687,899 | $1,211 |
| Virginia | 201 | $664,506 | $3,306 |
| Colorado | 495 | $556,124 | $1,123 |
| South Carolina | 232 | $507,917 | $2,189 |
| Wisconsin | 150 | $452,434 | $3,016 |
| Nevada | 91 | $442,411 | $4,862 |
| Michigan | 229 | $424,031 | $1,852 |
| Ohio | 294 | $420,607 | $1,431 |
| Arizona | 271 | $371,653 | $1,371 |
| Illinois | 335 | $305,479 | $912 |
| North Carolina | 248 | $279,798 | $1,128 |
| Tennessee | 206 | $270,158 | $1,311 |
| Iowa | 49 | $267,729 | $5,464 |
| Massachusetts | 312 | $253,518 | $813 |
| Maryland | 277 | $240,398 | $868 |
| Alabama | 162 | $209,904 | $1,296 |
| Oregon | 229 | $204,802 | $894 |
| Louisiana | 130 | $194,518 | $1,496 |
| Oklahoma | 94 | $172,619 | $1,836 |
| Indiana | 130 | $120,088 | $924 |
| Nebraska | 101 | $117,952 | $1,168 |
| Utah | 121 | $108,525 | $897 |
| Kansas | 80 | $97,518 | $1,219 |
| Missouri | 118 | $96,228 | $815 |
| Kentucky | 72 | $91,308 | $1,268 |
| Mississippi | 35 | $83,292 | $2,380 |
| Maine | 105 | $78,705 | $750 |
| Montana | 65 | $78,294 | $1,205 |
| Idaho | 78 | $77,762 | $997 |
| Minnesota | 121 | $68,836 | $569 |
| New Hampshire | 86 | $63,424 | $737 |
| Delaware | 51 | $56,013 | $1,098 |
| West Virginia | 53 | $45,417 | $857 |
| Alaska | 31 | $44,730 | $1,443 |
| District of Columbia | 67 | $33,815 | $505 |
| New Mexico | 44 | $30,344 | $690 |
| Arkansas | 30 | $27,037 | $901 |
| Rhode Island | 41 | $26,278 | $641 |
| Hawaii | 20 | $26,110 | $1,305 |
| South Dakota | 29 | $16,821 | $580 |
| Wyoming | 18 | $15,950 | $886 |
| Puerto Rico | 2 | $11,452 | $5,726 |
| North Dakota | 8 | $3,766 | $471 |
| Vermont | 9 | $1,959 | $218 |
| AE | 3 | $909 | $303 |