Ben Barton, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Nashville, TNNPI 1487757605
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $4,895 of the $6,197 with a category attached, or 79.0%. 34 manufacturers reported payments, led by Artivion, Inc. at 24.9% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $1,809 and has fallen 65.7% since, to $620 in 2025.
Across 186 payments — averaging $33.31 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Artivion, Inc.$2K
- Abbott$1K
- ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)$898
- Atricure, Inc.$447
- Edwards Lifesciences$293
- Getinge USA Sales, LLC$253
- plus $2K from 28 others
What the payments were for
- Speaking & faculty fees$1002%
- Travel & lodging$1,20219%
- Food & beverage$4,89579%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Artivion, Inc. | 9 | $1,546 |
| Abbott | 19 | $1,153 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 53 | $898 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 23 | $447 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 11 | $293 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 5 | $253 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 8 | $187 |
| Abiomed | 1 | $146 |
| Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc. | 4 | $123 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 5 | $101 |
| AstraZeneca | 4 | $98 |
| Stryker | 3 | $94 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 3 | $79 |
| BD | 2 | $78 |
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 3 | $75 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 3 | $74 |
| Smoky Mountain Surgical LLC | 3 | $70 |
| Bolton Medical Inc | 3 | $64 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 3 | $48 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 2 | $41 |
| Davol Inc. | 2 | $37 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 2 | $32 |
| Intuitive Surgical | 1 | $30 |
| Merck | 1 | $30 |
| Sanara Medtech Inc. | 4 | $27 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $25 |
| Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. | 1 | $24 |
| Convatec Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Genentech USA, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC | 1 | $20 |
| Medistim USA, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Chiesi USA, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 1 | $13 |
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
$6,197 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th percentile of 115 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Tennessee.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Tennessee →
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 | 21 | $126 |
| Amiodarone Hcl | 17 | $80 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Nashville
- Grayson WheatleyNashville$900K
- V ReddyNashville$760K
- Clayton KaiserNashville$124K
- Sreekumar SubramanianNashville$98K
- Erin GillaspieNashville$95K
- Amber EdwardsNashville$83K
- Caitlin DemarestNashville$33K
- Henry ToddNashville$28K
- Swaroop BommareddiNashville$26K
- Ali IrshadNashville$20K
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.