Giorgos Karakousis, MD
Surgery · Philadelphia, PANPI 1952458937
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $19,450 of the $21,225 with a category attached, or 91.6%. Merck accounts for 74.9% of it on its own, with 2 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $11,809 and has fallen 99.4% since, to $76 in 2024. Among surgery clinicians in PA with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 24 payments — averaging $884.39 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Merck$16K
- E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.$5K
- Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc.$125
Across 15 payments — averaging $584,515 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.
- Merck$8.8M
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$19,45092%
- Travel & lodging$1,0185%
- Food & beverage$7574%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Merck | 11 | $15,900 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 12 | $5,200 |
| Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc. | 1 | $125 |
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.
- LIBTAYO$125
How this compares
$21,225 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 1,424 surgery providers in Pennsylvania.
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.
Other surgery in Philadelphia
- Brett ChatmanPhiladelphia$178K
- David WernsingPhiladelphia$142K
- Said AzouryPhiladelphia$131K
- James MarkmannPhiladelphia$97K
- Daniel HewittPhiladelphia$89K
- Daniel HashimotoPhiladelphia$73K
- Scott KozinPhiladelphia$59K
- Prashanth PalvannanPhiladelphia$54K
- Henry HirschPhiladelphia$53K
- Erica PettkePhiladelphia$52K
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.