Has Ashwin Viswanathan, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $185,290 in general payments to Ashwin Viswanathan, MD across 361 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 Ashwin Viswanathan, 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 Ashwin Viswanathan, 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.

Ashwin Viswanathan, MD

Neurological Surgery · Houston, TXNPI 1699917047

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (54.7%), consulting fees and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Boston Scientific accounts for 83.0% of it on its own, with 9 other manufacturers making up the rest. Among neurological surgery clinicians in TX with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.

$185,290in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 361 payments — averaging $513.27 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Boston Scientific$154K
Medtronic$21K
Neuroone Medical Technologies Corporation$5K
Abbott$2K
Insightec,inc$2K
Si-bone, Inc.$924
plus $852 from 4 others

$30,500in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 2 payments — averaging $15,250 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.

Functional Neuromodulation Inc$21K
Boston Scientific$10K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$35,27519%
Speaking & faculty fees$101,28855%
Travel & lodging$31,56017%
Food & beverage$17,1619%
Education$80%

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
Boston Scientific	210	$153,855
Medtronic(2 entities)	96	$20,525
Neuroone Medical Technologies Corporation	1	$5,000
Abbott	19	$2,440
Insightec,inc	21	$1,695
Si-bone, Inc.	8	$924
Zimmer Biomet	3	$668
Saluda Medical Americas, Inc.	1	$120
Stryker	1	$43
CMP Pharma, Inc.	1	$20

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

$185,290 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 582 neurological surgery providers in Texas.

See all neurological surgery providers in Texas →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$164,698

Medicare patients

169

Services billed

340

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
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	18	$132

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other neurological surgery in Houston

Andrew RoeserHouston$660K
Paul HolmanHouston$516K
Taylor GistHouston$447K
Meng HuangHouston$324K
Laurence RhinesHouston$322K
Omar TanweerHouston$254K
Jeremy WangHouston$231K
Alexander RopperHouston$208K
Fangyi ZhangHouston$192K
Blake StaubHouston$171K

See the full list for Texas →

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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