James Obney, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Columbus, OHNPI 1780694505
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 113 payments — averaging $129.35 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$10K
- Atricure, Inc.$3K
- Edwards Lifesciences$1K
- Medtronic$122
- Abiomed$110
- LSI Solutions Inc$73
- plus $400 from 13 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$5,53538%
- Food & beverage$3,08221%
- Education$6,00041%
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 | 34 | $9,840 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 32 | $2,726 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 12 | $1,345 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 7 | $122 |
| Abiomed | 4 | $110 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 3 | $73 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 3 | $62 |
| Merck | 2 | $49 |
| Abbott | 2 | $42 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 2 | $39 |
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 2 | $38 |
| AstraZeneca | 2 | $26 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $26 |
| Elutia, Inc. | 2 | $25 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 1 | $17 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 1 | $17 |
| Smith+Nephew | 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.
How this compares
$14,616 in reported general payments places this provider in the 70th percentile of 245 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Ohio.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Ohio →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Metoprolol Succinate | 11 | $199 |
| Metoprolol Tartrate | 12 | $95 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Columbus
- Daniel WatsonColumbus$946K
- Eric OkumColumbus$640K
- Bryan WhitsonColumbus$583K
- Desmond DsouzaColumbus$487K
- Gregory RushingColumbus$364K
- Ahmet KilicColumbus$316K
- Jefferson LyonsColumbus$173K
- Nahush MokadamColumbus$141K
- Peter KneuertzColumbus$115K
- Steven DuffColumbus$73K
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.