Ashok Venkataraman, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Chapel Hill, NCNPI 1285864074
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — travel and lodging (48.3%), food and beverage and education — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. It is spread thinly across 22 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 17.0%.
Across 235 payments — averaging $164.34 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Atricure, Inc.$7K
- Intuitive Surgical$5K
- Arthrex$5K
- Artivion, Inc.$4K
- Edwards Lifesciences$4K
- Abbott$3K
- plus $11K from 16 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$1,0003%
- Speaking & faculty fees$3,75010%
- Travel & lodging$18,66648%
- Food & beverage$10,56727%
- Education$4,63612%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Atricure, Inc. | 51 | $6,582 |
| Intuitive Surgical | 18 | $5,197 |
| Arthrex | 11 | $4,971 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 33 | $4,440 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 24 | $3,542 |
| Abbott | 19 | $2,897 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 2 | $2,146 |
| Abiomed | 22 | $1,699 |
| Boston Scientific | 9 | $1,656 |
| Steelhead Surgical Inc | 7 | $1,434 |
| Covidien LP | 2 | $817 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 11 | $758 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 7 | $713 |
| Livanova USA, Inc. | 2 | $648 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 3 | $346 |
| Corcym Inc | 6 | $298 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 3 | $256 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 1 | $87 |
| Bolton Medical Inc | 1 | $70 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 1 | $21 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $21 |
| Molnlycke Health Care US, LLC | 1 | $19 |
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.
- DAVINCI XI$4,500
- Mitra Clip system$2,212
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$1,846
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$1,298
- ON-X AORTIC HEART VALVE WITH CONFORM-X SEWING RING AND EXTENDED HOLDER$1,185
- AMDS-Ascyrus Medical$1,000
- Impella$951
- Cardiac non-SynerGraft$837
- LigaSure$817
- ATRICURE ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION$694
- ATRICURE SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$674
- MICS Instruments$648
- Perceval$648
- Memo4D$648
- ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$590
- Da Vinci Surgical System$415
- ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$405
- COREVALVE EVOLUT R$395
- MITRIS RESILIA Mitral Valve$295
- AdvantageRib$263
How this compares
$38,619 in reported general payments places this provider in the 80th percentile of 132 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in North Carolina.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in North Carolina →
Medicare billing
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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Mupirocin | 47 | $384 |
| Chlorhexidine Gluconate | 48 | $224 |
| Metoprolol Succinate | 11 | $94 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 17 | $79 |
| Metoprolol Tartrate | 22 | $78 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Chapel Hill
- Michael MillChapel Hill$137K
- Joseph RubelowskyRaleigh$2.2M
- Matthew HartwigDurham$406K
- Gregory SmaroffNew Bern$205K
- David HarpoleDurham$177K
- Carmelo MilanoLumberton$169K
- Walter ChitwoodGreenville$139K
- Eric SkipperCharlotte$132K
- Brett StarrHickory$95K
- Thomas D AmicoDurham$94K
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.