John Kelemen, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Hilton Head Island, SCNPI 1871554212
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by education: $26,636 of the $34,537 with a category attached, or 77.1%. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 81.2% of it on its own, with 19 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $19,270 and has fallen 99.7% since, to $52 in 2025. Among thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) clinicians in SC 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 111 payments — averaging $311.14 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$28K
- Abiomed$1K
- Zimmer Biomet$1K
- Atricure, Inc.$1K
- Edwards Lifesciences$727
- Medtronic$571
- plus $2K from 14 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$3,89511%
- Food & beverage$4,00612%
- Education$26,63677%
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 | 25 | $28,034 |
| Abiomed | 13 | $1,297 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 7 | $1,198 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 15 | $1,132 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 2 | $727 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 5 | $571 |
| Bolton Medical Inc | 4 | $315 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 3 | $259 |
| BD | 4 | $192 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 6 | $162 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 7 | $157 |
| Pfizer | 6 | $128 |
| Bayer | 2 | $99 |
| Davol Inc. | 4 | $94 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 3 | $53 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 1 | $28 |
| Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals International, PLC | 1 | $26 |
| Roche Diagnostics Corporation | 1 | $25 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 1 | $22 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
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$26,500
- Da Vinci Surgical System$1,243
- Impella$954
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$699
- AdvantageRib$557
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$443
- RIBFIX BLU ADVANTAGE$371
- Avalus$369
- Grafts$144
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$136
- VISTASEAL$123
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYS$121
- ATRICURE ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION$121
- Relay Plus$106
How this compares
$34,537 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th 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.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Hilton Head Island
- Curtis QuinnCharleston$374K
- Marc KatzCharleston$265K
- Arman KilicCharleston$170K
- Barry GibneyCharleston$39K
- Jacob KlapperCharleston$38K
- Kathryn EngelhartdtCharleston$33K
- Gautam BhatiaGreenville$31K
- Sanford ZeiglerCharleston$30K
- Charles RousseauSpartanburg$29K
- Heather CurrierWest Columbia$23K
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.