Medical Doctor Program year 2025 Reported 2019–2025 Source: CMS Open Payments, 2026 publication

Er-Kai Gao

Neurological Surgery La Mesa, CA Medical Doctor

NPI 1710064944 CMS profile 77152

8851 Center Dr Ste 603, La Mesa, CA 91942

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General payments

$35,574

1,179 records reported · program years 2019–2025

Research payments

$0

Paid to them · None reported · program years 2019–2025

Ownership & investment interest

$0

None reported

Through program year 2025, Er-Kai Gao of La Mesa, CA is reported in the CMS Open Payments database as having received $35,574 across 1,179 general payments and $0 in research payments paid to them.

No combined total General, research and ownership are kept apart. Each is reported under its own rules, and ownership is not money that moved at all but the value of a stake held. A meal, a clinical trial grant and a shareholding do not add up to anything meaningful, so this site does not add them.

General payments for this record sit in the 83rd percentile of Neurological Surgery profiles with reported payments. Percentile describes the distribution, not the conduct.

By program year

7 rows
Year Kind Relative to this record's peak year Amount Records
2025 General $5,888 208
2024 General $6,800 217
2023 General $4,371 136
2022 General $4,352 172
2021 General $2,684 124
2020 General $4,282 120
2019 General $7,196 202

Beside peers

Year by year, beside peers General payments · among profiles paid that year
  • Er-Kai Gao
  • Neurological Surgery median
  • Middle half of Neurological Surgery
  • National median

In program year 2025, general payments to Er-Kai Gao were reported at $5,888. Among 5,467 Neurological Surgery profiles paid that year, the median was $596 and the middle half received between $159 and $3,102.

Show as a table
Year Er-Kai Gao Neurological Surgery median Middle half National median
2019 $7,196 $582 $138–$3,006 $163
2020 $4,282 $294 $76–$2,174 $114
2021 $2,684 $387 $105–$2,432 $132
2022 $4,352 $542 $139–$2,989 $149
2023 $4,371 $534 $145–$2,697 $160
2024 $6,800 $574 $155–$3,046 $164
2025 $5,888 $596 $159–$3,102 $169

Breakdown

Who paid General payments · program years 2019–2025
  1. UCB, Inc. $4,116 133 payments
  2. LivaNova USA, Inc. $2,942 31 payments
  3. Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. $2,676 40 payments
  4. AbbVie, Inc. $1,943 114 payments
  5. SK Life Science, Inc. $1,235 55 payments
  6. Boston Scientific Corporation $1,205 11 payments
  7. Neurelis, Inc. $1,150 49 payments
  8. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. $1,135 36 payments
  9. Biogen, Inc. $1,093 46 payments
  10. Eisai Inc. $1,074 41 payments
  11. Other $17,006 623 payments

Every payment, record by record

What the payments were for General payments · program years 2019–2025
  1. Food and Beverage $30,764 1,154 payments
  2. Travel and Lodging $2,570 11 payments
  3. Compensation for services other than consulting, including serving as faculty or as a speaker at a venue other than a continuing education program $2,031 7 payments
  4. Education $209 7 payments
Products named General payments · program years 2019–2025
  1. VNS Therapy $2,773 23 payments
  2. APTIOM $2,502 36 payments
  3. Briviact $1,392 63 payments
  4. UBRELVY $1,272 87 payments
  5. VALTOCO $1,150 49 payments
  6. AMVUTTRA $980 24 payments
  7. Zilbrysq $978 23 payments
  8. VERCISE $858 6 payments
  9. Leqembi $729 22 payments
  10. Fintepla $723 17 payments
  11. Other $22,383 885 payments

A payment can name more than one product, so these amounts overlap and do not add up to the general-payment figure.

Prescribing to Medicare patients

Part D · data year 2024 · 28 drugs

Part D claims

765

Median for Neurology: 833

Drug cost

$756,993

Median for Neurology: $202,670

Branded share of claims

32.2%

Median for Neurology: 25.9%

Drugs this doctor was counted under in Medicare Part D 2024, by drug cost
Drug Type Relative to their largest Claims Drug cost
Panzyga Immun Glob G(Igg)-Ifas/Glycine Brand 34 $386,162
Radicava Ors Edaravone Brand 14 $195,273
Gammagard Liquid Immun Glob G(Igg)/Gly/Iga Ov50 Brand 17 $113,463
Keppra Xr Levetiracetam Brand 15 $23,524
Nurtec Odt Rimegepant Sulfate Brand 14 $15,011
Carbidopa-Levodopa-Entacapone Carbidopa/Levodopa/Entacapone Brand 20 $4,076
Aspirin-Dipyridamole Er Aspirin/Dipyridamole Brand 11 $3,345
Rasagiline Mesylate Generic 11 $2,908
Levetiracetam Er Levetiracetam Brand 26 $2,383
Gabapentin Generic 141 $1,913

The 10 drugs with the highest cost, of 28 counted.

Drug cost is what was paid for the drugs at the pharmacy — by Medicare, the patient and others — and is not money to the prescriber. Medicare Part D only: drugs dispensed to Medicare beneficiaries. A drug with fewer than 11 claims for this prescriber is not published, so a missing drug does not mean zero. The medians are for the 13,695 Part D prescribers listed as Neurology; they describe a distribution and say nothing about conduct.

Billing to Medicare

Part B · data year 2024 · 41 billing codes

Paid by Medicare

$494,964

Medicare's payments for the services billed

Medicare patients

1,026

Average age 73

Services billed

5,480

564 women, 462 men among their patients

Share of this provider's Medicare patients with each condition
Condition among their Medicare patients Relative to the most common Share of patients
High blood pressure 75%
Depression 55%
Arthritis 54%
Diabetes 49%
Alzheimer's or dementia 36%
Ischemic heart disease 34%
Chronic kidney disease 33%
Heart failure 31%

Medicare Part B only: services billed to Medicare. Rows covering fewer than 11 beneficiaries are not published. Only drugs given in the clinic are itemised here; the rest of what this provider billed is in the total above.

Payments and prescribing

First 5 of 49 products · payments 2024

Two separate records. The payments come from Open Payments and the claims from Medicare. They are set side by side because they name the same product; they do not show that a payment affected a prescription.

Products this doctor was paid in connection with in 2024, beside Medicare claims for the same product
Product Paid by Related payments Part D claims Part B services
Zilbrysq
$634 — —
Briviact
$419 — —
Gocovri
$379 — —
ULTOMIRIS
$343 — —
Tiglutik
$331 — —

A dash means Medicare published no figure for this doctor and product — fewer than 11 claims, or the product is not covered under that part — which is not the same as none. Payments are general payments only; one that names several products is split evenly between them, so an amount is payments related to the product, not money paid for it.

See more in the dashboard: 25 with a free account, all 49 with Patron

Records

1,179 reported

Every payment, record by record

Date, company, amount, what it was for and the product named — filter by year, kind and company, or download as CSV.

Other Neurological Surgery in California

Related records

What this means

U.S. law requires drug and medical device manufacturers to report payments and transfers of value they make to physicians and teaching hospitals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes that record each year. This page shows what was reported about this person, and nothing else.

An ownership interest is different from the other two. It is not a payment: it is a stake — shares, options, a partnership holding — that a physician or an immediate family member held in a manufacturer during that year. The figure shown is what the stake was reported to be worth.

Research payments frequently pass through a clinician to the institution running a trial, and rarely represent personal income. They should be read differently from general payments.

Provenance

Source: CMS Open Payments · through program year 2025

Data current to program year 2025, from CMS's 2026 publication.

We reproduce what manufacturers reported. We do not verify, edit or correct the underlying records.

A payment record is not evidence of wrongdoing. Financial relationships between industry and medicine are legal, common and often necessary for research. Who Paid My Doc reports what was disclosed; it does not judge it.

Who Paid My Doc is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by CMS or any U.S. government agency. It is not a consumer reporting agency and this is not a consumer report; do not use it for decisions covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

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