Has Mark Heckel, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $989 in general payments to Mark Heckel, MD across 22 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Mark Heckel, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Mark Heckel, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Mark Heckel, MD

Cardiovascular Disease · Gastonia, NCNPI 1295722767

Payments from drug & device makers

$989in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 22 payments — averaging $44.98 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Abbott$355
Boston Scientific$304
Medtronic$212
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$92
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)$27

What the payments were for

Food & beverage$989100%

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
Abbott	6	$355
Boston Scientific	7	$304
Medtronic(2 entities)	6	$212
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	1	$92
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)	2	$27

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

$989 in reported general payments places this provider in the 30th percentile of 727 cardiovascular disease providers in North Carolina.

See all cardiovascular disease providers in North Carolina →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$181,791

Medicare patients

787

Services billed

2,088

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
EliquisApixaban	330	$293,428
XareltoRivaroxaban	44	$41,787
EntrestoSacubitril/Valsartan	21	$18,221
BrilintaTicagrelor	28	$14,707
Metoprolol Succinate	332	$3,467
Ranolazine ErRanolazine	13	$2,915
Prasugrel Hcl	12	$2,534
ClopidogrelClopidogrel Bisulfate	294	$2,441
VascepaIcosapent Ethyl	11	$1,968
Diltiazem 24hr Er (Cd)Diltiazem Hcl	82	$1,866
Atorvastatin Calcium	234	$1,663
Flecainide Acetate	66	$1,500
Furosemide	361	$1,470
Potassium Chloride	91	$1,453
Warfarin Sodium	128	$1,172

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other cardiovascular disease in Gastonia

John AlexanderDurham$76.8M
Christopher GrangerDurham$24.7M
Jonathan PicciniDurham$14.3M
Adrian HernandezDurham$13.2M
Gary FelkerDurham$12.7M
Robert MentzDurham$6M
Michael ShapiroWinston-Salem$5.4M
Kirkwood AdamsChapel Hill$4.9M
Matthew JanikWilmington$4M
Nishant ShahDurham$3.5M

See the full list for North Carolina →

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.

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