Has Bryon Boulton, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $40,159 in general payments to Bryon Boulton, MD across 97 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 Bryon Boulton, 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 Bryon Boulton, 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.

Bryon Boulton, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Raleigh, NCNPI 1497966782

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $36,025 of the $40,159 with a category attached, or 89.7%. Atricure, Inc. accounts for 89.4% of it on its own, with 18 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2020 at $22,657 and has fallen 98.1% since, to $420 in 2025.

$40,159in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 97 payments — averaging $414.01 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Atricure, Inc.$36K
Medtronic$3K
Edwards Lifesciences$383
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.$232
Zimmer Biomet$181
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$119
plus $430 from 13 others

$6,056in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 1 payment — averaging $6056.25 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.

Medtronic$6K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$36,02590%
Travel & lodging$1,6454%
Food & beverage$2,2896%
Education$2000%

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
Atricure, Inc.	28	$35,913
Medtronic(2 entities)	35	$2,901
Edwards Lifesciences	9	$383
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.	1	$232
Zimmer Biomet	4	$181
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	2	$119
Tricoast Surgical Solutions LLC	2	$84
Haemonetics Corporation	1	$55
LSI Solutions Inc	2	$52
Getinge USA Sales, LLC	3	$42
Elutia, Inc.	2	$32
Johnson & Johnson	1	$30
Abiomed	1	$25
BD	1	$22
Braemar Manufacturing, LLC	1	$20
Medistim USA, Inc.	1	$19
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)	1	$19
Artivion, Inc.	1	$17
Solventum Corporation	1	$15

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.

EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYS$11,600
ATRICURE ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION$8,800
SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$4,000
ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$4,000
EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$2,800
ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$2,800
Octopus$1,621
Otezla$232
Valiant Captivia$200
Simulus$168
Avalus$132
Conformable TAG Thoracic Endoprosthesis$106
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$103

How this compares

$40,159 in reported general payments places this provider in the 80th percentile of 132 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in North Carolina.

See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in North Carolina →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$258,010

Medicare patients

175

Services billed

521

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
Potassium Chloride	11	$33

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Raleigh

Joseph RubelowskyRaleigh$2.2M
Charles HarrRaleigh$90K
Robert PeytonRaleigh$84K
Judson WilliamsRaleigh$56K
Alden MaierRaleigh$20K
Clifton ReadeRaleigh$16K
Curtis AndersonRaleigh$9K
Matthew HartwigDurham$406K
Gregory SmaroffNew Bern$205K
David HarpoleDurham$177K

See the full list for North Carolina →

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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