Has Amelia Watkins, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $34,070 in general payments to Amelia Watkins, MD across 97 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Amelia Watkins, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Amelia Watkins, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Amelia Watkins, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Palo Alto, CANPI 1558596213

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $23,320 of the $34,070 with a category attached, or 68.4%. W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. accounts for 67.5% of it on its own, with 9 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $13,131 and has fallen 62.2% since, to $4,964 in 2025.

$34,070in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 97 payments — averaging $351.24 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$23K
Artivion, Inc.$6K
Medtronic$2K
BTG International Inc.$2K
Cook Medical LLC$510
Edwards Lifesciences$368
plus $347 from 4 others

$20,070in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 8 payments — averaging $2508.80 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.

Artivion, Inc.$16K
Shockwave Medical, Inc$4K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$23,32068%
Speaking & faculty fees$1,9506%
Travel & lodging$3,80711%
Food & beverage$4,99315%

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.

Company	Payments	Total
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	53	$22,991
Artivion, Inc.	10	$5,870
Medtronic	9	$2,384
BTG International Inc.	1	$1,600
Cook Medical LLC	7	$510
Edwards Lifesciences	10	$368
Bolton Medical Inc	3	$157
Heartflow, Inc.	1	$91
Veran Medical Technologies, Inc.	1	$85
Kls-martin L.p.	2	$14

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

$34,070 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 546 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in California.

See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$60,036

Medicare patients

Services billed

142

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.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Palo Alto

Chawannuch RuaengsriPalo Alto$188K
Vincent GaudianiPalo Alto$101K
Leah BackhusPalo Alto$74K
Joseph ShragerPalo Alto$56K
Thomas FogartyPortola Valley$3.7M
Steven GundryPalm Springs$1.6M
Armin KiankhooySaint Helena$941K
Ara KlijianMurrieta$916K
Gregory FontanaThousand Oaks$875K
Gansevoort DunningtonSaint Helena$764K

See the full list for California →

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.

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