Has Benjamin Starnes, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $666,348 in general payments to Benjamin Starnes, MD across 154 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 Benjamin Starnes, 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 Benjamin Starnes, 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.

Benjamin Starnes, MD

Vascular Surgery · Seatle, WANPI 1114997707

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $610,118 of the $666,348 with a category attached, or 91.6%. Bolton Medical Inc accounts for 99.0% of it on its own, with 12 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $616,281 and has fallen 96.4% since, to $22,471 in 2025. Among vascular surgery clinicians in WA with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 5% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.

$666,348in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 154 payments — averaging $4326.94 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Bolton Medical Inc$660K
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$3K
Medtronic$885
Cook Medical LLC$635
Endologix LLC$546
Abbott$430
plus $1K from 7 others

$31,651in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 12 payments — averaging $2637.60 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.

Bolton Medical Inc$28K
Cook Research Incorporated$4K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$610,11892%
Travel & lodging$47,9397%
Food & beverage$8,2911%

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
Bolton Medical Inc	73	$659,883
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	20	$2,676
Medtronic	7	$885
Cook Medical LLC	7	$635
Endologix LLC	6	$546
Abbott	16	$430
Angiodynamics, Inc.	2	$382
Shape Memory Medical Inc.	3	$277
Surmodics, Inc.	3	$211
Abiomed	12	$188
Terumo Medical Corporation	1	$104
Inspiremd Ltd	3	$81
Penumbra, Inc.	1	$49

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

$666,348 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 111 vascular surgery providers in Washington.

See all vascular surgery providers in Washington →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$55,152

Medicare patients

111

Services billed

189

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 vascular surgery in Seatle

Kathleen GibsonBellevue$593K
Brian FerrisBellevue$170K
Sara ZettervallSeattle$126K
Paul HayesSeattle$83K
Elina QuirogaSeattle$69K
Lorena de Marco GarciaYakima$60K
Mark MeissnerSeattle$43K
Stephen MurraySpokane$38K
Niten SinghSeattle$33K
Matthew SweetSeattle$28K

See the full list for Washington →

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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