James Ackerman, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Pittsburgh, PANPI 1407267867
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 23 payments — averaging $147.81 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$3K
- Medtronic$582
- Zimmer Biomet$140
- Johnson & Johnson$80
- Baxter Healthcare$17
Across 10 payments — averaging $194.82 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.
- Transmedics, Inc.$2K
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$90026%
- Education$2,50074%
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 | 6 | $2,581 |
| Medtronic | 12 | $582 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $140 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 3 | $80 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 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.
- DAVINCI XI$1,500
- Da Vinci Surgical System$1,000
- MEDLINE$140
- ENDO GIA ULTRA$119
How this compares
$3,400 in reported general payments places this provider in the 40th percentile of 314 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Pennsylvania.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular 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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Ondansetron OdtOndansetron | 12 | $919 |
| Pantoprazole Sodium | 12 | $81 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Pittsburgh
- Benny WekslerPittsburgh$1.5M
- Stephen BaileyPittsburgh$1.3M
- Walter McGregorPittsburgh$715K
- Inderpal SarkariaPittsburgh$248K
- Nicholas BakerPittsburgh$169K
- Pietro BajonaPittsburgh$147K
- David KaczorowskiPittsburgh$126K
- Rajeev DhuparPittsburgh$69K
- Robert MoracaPittsburgh$67K
- Robert KormosPittsburgh$58K
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.