Ernesto Ruiz-Rodriguez, MD
Interventional Cardiology · Little Rock, ARNPI 1831362300
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 553 payments — averaging $903.09 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Boston Scientific$460K
- Edwards Lifesciences$27K
- Abiomed$7K
- Medtronic$2K
- Shockwave Medical, Inc$1K
- Abbott$1K
- plus $601 from 14 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$31,86021%
- Speaking & faculty fees$73,39048%
- Travel & lodging$24,80416%
- Food & beverage$22,80715%
- Education$460%
- Gifts$460%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Scientific | 243 | $460,456 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 91 | $26,566 |
| Abiomed | 109 | $7,249 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 37 | $2,043 |
| Shockwave Medical, Inc | 22 | $1,299 |
| Abbott | 22 | $1,197 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 9 | $151 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 1 | $98 |
| Cardiovascular Systems Inc. | 6 | $66 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 2 | $58 |
| Chiesi USA, Inc. | 1 | $46 |
| Irhythm Technologies, Inc. | 2 | $36 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $28 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Cardiva Medical, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 1 | $17 |
| Merck | 1 | $16 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 1 | $14 |
| Amgen | 1 | $14 |
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.
- GENERAL - THERAPIES$35,586
- LOTUS EDGE$33,619
- GENERAL - STRUCTURAL HEART$25,791
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$21,747
- Impella$4,352
- SPECTRA WAVEWRITER$2,490
- SYNERGY$1,665
- GENERAL VASCULAR ACCESS$1,108
- Watchman$1,041
- COREVALVE EVOLUT R$759
- Shockwave IVL System with the Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL Catheter$755
- CoreValve Evolut$396
- GENERAL - STENTS$374
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$353
- GENERAL VASCULAR INTERVENTION$288
- AVVIGO Guidance System$287
- MitraClip$269
- UPSYLON$144
- NAVITOR$143
- PASCAL$129
How this compares
$499,411 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 89 interventional cardiology providers in Arkansas.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| EliquisApixaban | 165 | $109,676 |
| EntrestoSacubitril/Valsartan | 46 | $33,607 |
| Prasugrel Hcl | 269 | $20,054 |
| XareltoRivaroxaban | 19 | $11,793 |
| Repatha SureclickEvolocumab | 12 | $6,284 |
| Bumetanide | 86 | $2,904 |
| ClopidogrelClopidogrel Bisulfate | 263 | $2,489 |
| Potassium Chloride | 93 | $1,198 |
| Amiodarone Hcl | 69 | $1,149 |
| Ranolazine ErRanolazine | 13 | $1,120 |
| Torsemide | 35 | $830 |
| Atorvastatin Calcium | 130 | $742 |
| Carvedilol | 96 | $611 |
| Metoprolol Succinate | 38 | $596 |
| Furosemide | 124 | $510 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Companies that both paid and supply prescribed drugs
These companies both reported payments to this provider and make drugs the provider prescribed under Medicare Part D in 2024. For most specialties this overlap is expected — a cardiologist who is paid by a cardiology drugmaker also treats heart disease. It is shown so the reader can see it, not because it implies anything on its own.
| Company | Paid to this provider | Part D cost of their drugs |
|---|---|---|
| Johnson & JohnsonXarelto | $58 | $11,79319 claims |
Reading this fairly. The Part D column is what drug plans and patients paid pharmacies — this provider received none of it, and it reflects how many patients they treat and what those drugs cost. Against peers, this provider's reported payments sit in the 95th percentile of 89 interventional cardiology providers in Arkansas.
Other interventional cardiology in Little Rock
- Gaurav DharLittle Rock$793K
- Vasili LendelLittle Rock$206K
- Vijay RajaLittle Rock$106K
- Thomas WattsLittle Rock$79K
- Stephen BroughtonLittle Rock$34K
- Mahesh Anantha NarayananLittle Rock$26K
- Aravind RaoLittle Rock$17K
- Patrick TobbiaLittle Rock$14K
- Subhi AlarefLittle Rock$13K
- Hamza RayesLittle Rock$10K
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.