James Zellner, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Chattanooga, TNNPI 1184610867
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $4,424 of the $5,361 with a category attached, or 82.5%. 12 manufacturers reported payments, led by Edwards Lifesciences at 40.0% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $1,221 and has fallen 90.5% since, to $116 in 2025.
Across 196 payments — averaging $27.35 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Edwards Lifesciences$2K
- Atricure, Inc.$2K
- Medtronic$425
- Artivion, Inc.$307
- Abbott$109
- Abiomed$102
- plus $148 from 6 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$93717%
- Food & beverage$4,42483%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Edwards Lifesciences | 85 | $2,145 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 68 | $2,125 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 15 | $425 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 16 | $307 |
| Abbott | 5 | $109 |
| Abiomed | 1 | $102 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 1 | $36 |
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 1 | $32 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $27 |
| Haemonetics Corporation | 1 | $21 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $13 |
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.
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$502
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$435
- ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$289
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$152
- ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$149
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$145
- CoreValve Evolut$132
- Valiant Navion$128
- Impella$102
How this compares
$5,361 in reported general payments places this provider in the 55th percentile of 115 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Tennessee.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Tennessee →
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 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Chattanooga
- Mark BonnellChattanooga$141K
- James HeadrickChattanooga$46K
- John CraigChattanooga$10K
- Larry ShearsChattanooga$9K
- Jeffrey PoynterChattanooga$9K
- Grayson WheatleyNashville$900K
- V ReddyNashville$760K
- Harvey GarrettMemphis$712K
- Clayton KaiserNashville$124K
- Sreekumar SubramanianNashville$98K
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.