Mark Blucher, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Saint Louis, MONPI 1568433951
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 81 payments — averaging $41.97 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$1K
- Edwards Lifesciences$378
- Atricure, Inc.$318
- Johnson & Johnson$279
- Corcym Inc$182
- Baxter Healthcare$133
- plus $702 from 24 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$65919%
- Food & beverage$2,74181%
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 | 7 | $1,406 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 14 | $378 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 10 | $318 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 8 | $279 |
| Corcym Inc | 5 | $182 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 5 | $133 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 2 | $99 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 2 | $66 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 3 | $62 |
| Abbott | 2 | $49 |
| Surgical Specialties Corporation (US), Inc. (dba Corza Medical) | 1 | $38 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $38 |
| Solventum Corporation | 2 | $31 |
| Pfizer | 2 | $31 |
| Davol Inc. | 1 | $30 |
| Kestra Medical Technology Services, Inc. | 1 | $27 |
| Daiichi Sankyo Inc. | 1 | $22 |
| Elutia, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Pinnacle Biologics, Inc | 1 | $21 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Polynovo North America LLC | 1 | $19 |
| Portola Pharmaceuticals, LLC | 1 | $19 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 2 | $17 |
| Aesculap, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $15 |
| Stryker | 1 | $15 |
| Trevena, Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $13 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 1 | $12 |
| Veran Medical Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $9 |
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
$3,400 in reported general payments places this provider in the 35th percentile of 113 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Missouri.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Missouri →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gabapentin | 73 | $695 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 17 | $149 |
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 14 | $95 |
| Diazepam | 20 | $35 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Saint Louis
- Tsuyoshi KanekoSaint Louis$1M
- Ralph DamianoSaint Louis$816K
- Puja KachrooSaint Louis$410K
- Muhammad MasoodSaint Louis$212K
- Joshua BakerSaint Louis$208K
- Matthew SchillSaint Louis$165K
- Kunal Deepak KotkarSaint Louis$126K
- Amit PawaleSaint Louis$106K
- Umraan AhmadSaint Louis$51K
- Pirooz EghtesadySaint Louis$51K
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.