Brent Gudenkauf
Hospitalist · Houston, TXNPI 1346869260
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $6,297 of the $8,458 with a category attached, or 74.4%. 29 manufacturers reported payments, led by Abbott at 36.3% of the total. 2025 is the largest year on record at $5,015, 3.5 times the $1,428 reported in 2023. Among hospitalist clinicians in TX 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.
Across 143 payments — averaging $59.15 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Abbott$3K
- Boston Scientific$1K
- Abiomed$1K
- Inari Medical, Inc.$587
- Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc.$401
- Medtronic$311
- plus $2K from 23 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$1,91223%
- Food & beverage$6,29774%
- Education$2493%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Abbott | 30 | $3,073 |
| Boston Scientific | 16 | $1,198 |
| Abiomed | 19 | $1,118 |
| Inari Medical, Inc. | 5 | $587 |
| Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc. | 12 | $401 |
| Medtronic | 4 | $311 |
| Amgen | 8 | $259 |
| Pfizer | 17 | $216 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 1 | $197 |
| Teleflex LLC | 1 | $168 |
| Bolton Medical Inc | 1 | $140 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 3 | $103 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 5 | $102 |
| Bridgebio Pharma, Inc. | 2 | $87 |
| AstraZeneca | 3 | $56 |
| Bracco Diagnostics Inc. | 1 | $50 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 2 | $50 |
| Endotronix, Inc. | 1 | $45 |
| Novartis | 2 | $44 |
| Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals International, PLC | 1 | $33 |
| Terumo Medical Corporation | 1 | $29 |
| Cvrx, Inc. | 1 | $28 |
| Cardiva Medical, Inc. | 1 | $28 |
| BD | 1 | $27 |
| Shockwave Medical, Inc | 1 | $26 |
| Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. | 1 | $22 |
| Philips North America LLC | 1 | $19 |
| Heartflow, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
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.
- PROSTAR$1,494
- Impella$556
- FLOWTRIEVER CATHETER, S$531
- CT THROMBECTOMY SYSTEM KIT$531
- Perclose ProStyle$363
- AVVIGO Guidance System$288
- ENSITE$249
- AlphaVac$197
- TURNPIKE$168
- WATCHMAN FLX$164
- GENERAL ANGIOGRAPHY$154
- COREVALVE EVOLUT R$149
- TREO ABDOMINAL STENT-GRAFT SYSTEM$140
- SUPERA$138
- Emerge Push$137
- SYNERGY$130
How this compares
$8,458 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 1,284 hospitalist providers in Texas.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| ClopidogrelClopidogrel Bisulfate | 14 | $263 |
| Atorvastatin Calcium | 15 | $133 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other hospitalist in Houston
- Ryan NealHouston$154K
- Ahmad BaroutHouston$44K
- Laxman KalvakuntlaHouston$30K
- Joshua HahnHouston$23K
- Grace OdiHouston$14K
- Spencer SuHouston$9K
- Martin Chacon PortilloHouston$9K
- Abeer SiddiqiHouston$9K
- Dilpreet SinghHouston$7K
- John FlynnHouston$6K
Where these figures come from
- Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
- Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.