Heather Palomino
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Myrtle Beach, SCNPI 1992192587
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — education (52.8%), food and beverage and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 68.3% of it on its own, with 19 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $15,336 and has fallen 88.7% since, to $1,732 in 2025.
Across 129 payments — averaging $169.52 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$15K
- Atricure, Inc.$3K
- Abiomed$2K
- Edwards Lifesciences$988
- Abbott$430
- Medtronic$269
- plus $927 from 14 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$3,69317%
- Food & beverage$6,63230%
- Education$11,54353%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical | 42 | $14,936 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 38 | $2,645 |
| Abiomed | 10 | $1,672 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 8 | $988 |
| Abbott | 4 | $430 |
| Medtronic | 6 | $269 |
| Peerless Surgical Inc. | 1 | $166 |
| Heartflow, Inc. | 1 | $145 |
| Kerecis Limited | 1 | $106 |
| Shockwave Medical, Inc | 1 | $104 |
| Haemonetics Corporation | 1 | $88 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 4 | $73 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 2 | $50 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 3 | $45 |
| Novartis | 2 | $39 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 1 | $26 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 1 | $24 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $23 |
| Philips North America LLC | 1 | $21 |
| Irhythm Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
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.
- DAVINCI XI$11,500
- Da Vinci Surgical System$2,594
- Impella$1,264
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$1,116
- SAPIEN 3 Ultra RESILIA$657
- ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$571
- Kerecis Omega3 Marigen$423
- PORTICO$264
- DA VINCI SP$200
- COREVALVE EVOLUT R$154
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$149
- FFRct$145
- HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Dev$130
- ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM (CRYO2)$130
- MITRIS RESILIA Mitral Valve$111
- Kerecis Omega3 SurgiClose$106
- Shockwave IVL System with the Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL Catheter$104
How this compares
$21,868 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 83 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in South Carolina.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in South Carolina →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mupirocin | 79 | $566 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Myrtle Beach
- Parijat DidolkarMyrtle Beach$21K
- Curtis QuinnCharleston$374K
- Marc KatzCharleston$265K
- Arman KilicCharleston$170K
- Barry GibneyCharleston$39K
- Jacob KlapperCharleston$38K
- John KelemenHilton Head Island$35K
- Kathryn EngelhartdtCharleston$33K
- Gautam BhatiaGreenville$31K
- Sanford ZeiglerCharleston$30K
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.