Austina Cho, MD
Psychiatry · Buena Park, CANPI 1780770453
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 98.4% of the total across 94 separate payments, which is the pattern of a clinician who attends manufacturer presentations rather than one with a consulting arrangement. It is spread thinly across 13 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 20.0% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $1,263 and has fallen 77.4% since, to $285 in 2025.
Across 94 payments — averaging $31.84 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- AbbVie$600
- Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.$563
- Johnson & Johnson$332
- Alkermes, Inc.$306
- Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.$294
- Indivior Inc.$196
- plus $701 from 7 others
Across 993 payments — averaging $8963.58 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.
- AbbVie$3.1M
- Sage Therapeutics, LLC$2.1M
- Boehringer Ingelheim$566K
- Biogen$401K
- Sumitomo Pharma America, Inc.$391K
- Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc.$360K
- plus $1.9M from 21 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$2,94498%
- Education$492%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 22 | $600 |
| Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. | 12 | $563 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 7 | $332 |
| Alkermes, Inc. | 6 | $306 |
| Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. | 12 | $294 |
| Indivior Inc. | 8 | $196 |
| Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 12 | $191 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 4 | $186 |
| ITI, Inc. (d/b/a Intra-cellular Therapies, Inc.) | 2 | $151 |
| Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. | 5 | $86 |
| Lundbeck LLC | 2 | $40 |
| Ironshore Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 1 | $25 |
| Luye Pharma (USA) Ltd. | 1 | $22 |
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
$2,993 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 4,954 psychiatry providers in California.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Paliperidone ErPaliperidone | 25 | $3,958 |
| Atomoxetine Hcl | 16 | $1,072 |
| Hydroxyzine Hcl | 14 | $819 |
| Duloxetine Hcl | 24 | $608 |
| Gabapentin | 38 | $596 |
| Temazepam | 19 | $482 |
| Buspirone Hcl | 14 | $469 |
| Lamotrigine | 75 | $468 |
| Dextroamphetamine-AmphetamineDextroamphetamine/Amphetamine | 26 | $450 |
| Trazodone Hcl | 24 | $431 |
| Olanzapine | 22 | $406 |
| Venlafaxine Hcl ErVenlafaxine Hcl | 19 | $307 |
| Dextroamphetamine-Amphet ErDextroamphetamine/Amphetamine | 12 | $305 |
| Quetiapine Fumarate | 47 | $286 |
| Ziprasidone Hcl | 15 | $262 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other psychiatry in Buena Park
- Gustavo AlvaOrange$5.8M
- John KooSan Francisco$3M
- Jason KelloggIrvine$2.7M
- Jonathan MeyerSan Diego$2.3M
- Charles Tuan-Tu NguyenIrvine$2.1M
- Manoj WaikarLos Gatos$1.9M
- Gerald MaguireSan Juan Capistraco$1.8M
- Salima BrillmanSunnyvale$1.4M
- Bibi DasStanford$1.4M
- Konstantinos TripodisBurbank$1M
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.