Kevin Choong, MD
Surgical Oncology · Columbia, SCNPI 1295092302
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — food and beverage (51.9%), education and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 63.2% of it on its own, with 14 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $1,925 and has fallen 87.6% since, to $239 in 2024.
Across 27 payments — averaging $91.81 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$2K
- AbbVie$393
- Biom'up France SAS$114
- Kerecis Limited$111
- Aroa Biosurgery Incorporated$101
- Shockwave Medical, Inc$25
- plus $167 from 9 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$1918%
- Food & beverage$1,28752%
- Education$1,00040%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical | 10 | $1,567 |
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 3 | $393 |
| Biom'up France SAS | 1 | $114 |
| Kerecis Limited | 1 | $111 |
| Aroa Biosurgery Incorporated | 1 | $101 |
| Shockwave Medical, Inc | 1 | $25 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 2 | $22 |
| Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc. | 1 | $22 |
| Morphosys, US Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $21 |
| AstraZeneca | 1 | $18 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $17 |
| Stryker | 1 | $15 |
| Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. | 1 | $14 |
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
Too few surgical oncology providers in South Carolinato place this figure against a meaningful peer group, so we don't.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oxycodone Hcl | 11 | $60 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgical oncology in Columbia
- Chukwuemeka ObioraColumbia$2K
- Julian KimColumbia$1K
- Steven TrochaGreenville$57K
- Andrea AbbottCharleston$38K
- Brian McKinleyGreenville$13K
- Bernardo Franssen CanovasCharleston$10K
- Daniel KirchoffCharleston$4K
- Jeffrey SuttonCharleston$2K
- David MahviCharleston$1K
- Bernice HuangCharleston$1K
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.