Provider records sourced from NPPES (CMS National Plan & Provider Enumeration System). Data current as of October 4, 2026.
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Robert Merrill Ruth, MD

Individual provider Orthopaedic Hand Surgery Physician · NPI 1730273681

Robert Merrill Ruth, MD practises Orthopedic Surgery in Santa Barbara, California. Graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1991, 35 years ago. Practices with David B. Hammer, a 116-clinician group and accepts Medicare assignment. Licensed in California.

Years since qualifying
35
Trained at
Harvard Medical School
Licensed in
CA
In the registry since
2006
What do these letters mean?
MD — Doctor of Medicine
A physician who completed allopathic medical school.

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Practice location Address checks out

2323 De La Vina #201
Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Not confirmed with CMS for 19 years — call before visiting
Phone: (805) 682-2267
Fax: (808) 556-3097
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Pin is approximate — placed at the ZIP-code centre, not the exact door.

Specialties & licences

Orthopaedic Hand Surgery Physician (primary) Taxonomy 207XS0106X · Licence G81288 (CA)

Record details

NPI number1730273681
Entity typeIndividual (Type 1)
GenderMale
Credentials MD
Sole proprietorNo
NPI enumeratedOctober 3, 2006
Last updated in NPPESJuly 8, 2007

Medicare enrollment

From the CMS Doctors & Clinicians file — this clinician is enrolled in Medicare.

Medicare specialtyORTHOPEDIC SURGERY
Medical schoolHARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
Graduated 1991 (35 years in practice)
Group practice David B. Hammer — 116 clinicians
Accepts Medicare assignment Yes — accepts the Medicare-approved amount
Practice locations2 on file with Medicare

Procedures

From CMS Care Compare, which counts the procedures a clinician billed to Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage over a recent 12-month period. CMS reports a fixed list of common procedures, so this is not everything the clinician does. Counts of 10 or fewer are given as a range, because CMS withholds small numbers.

Upper limb (arm) arthroscopy (minimally invasive joint repair) 63 times · 90th percentile
Melanoma (skin cancer) excision 1–10 times
Removal of tissue 1–10 times

The percentile compares how often this clinician performed the procedure with other clinicians who performed it, as CMS calculates it. It measures volume, not outcomes or skill.

Medicare patients and services, 2024

From the CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners file for calendar year 2024. It counts Original Medicare patients only, so a practice that mostly sees Medicare Advantage or privately insured patients looks smaller here than it is.

Medicare patients641
Services billed 3,289 a service is one billed item, such as a visit, a test or a procedure
Average patient age75

Dollar amounts are not shown. What Medicare pays a practice is gross billings, before staff, premises and tax and including the cost of any drugs it administers, so it is not what a clinician earns.

Payments from drug and device companies, 2025

Drug and device makers are required by federal law (the Physician Payments Sunshine Act) to report what they pay or give to clinicians, and CMS publishes the reports as Open Payments. This is the 2025 program year. A report is a record of a payment, not an allegation of anything, and many are small items such as meals. Only general payments are listed here; research payments and ownership or investment interests are reported separately by CMS and are not shown.

Food and Beverage $41 2 payments · a meal or drink at a meeting or visit, not a fee

Each amount is the sum of what companies reported for that kind of payment in 2025, rounded to the dollar. Not all of it is income to the clinician: a meal is not a fee, a charitable contribution goes to a charity, and a royalty or an acquisition payment is not a salary.

Check a report, or dispute one, at the source in CMS’s own tool, Open Payments. Corrections go through CMS’s dispute process. This site removes a home address on request and asks for no proof, because that is privacy; it will not remove an accurate payment report on request, because that is a statutory public disclosure.

Practises at

Facilities the CMS Facility Affiliation file lists for this clinician.

Colleagues at David B. Hammer

Clinicians the CMS Doctors & Clinicians file lists under the same group practice. CMS counts 116 clinicians in the practice; 12 are shown here.

Other providers in Santa Barbara