Melanie Walker, MD
Neurological Surgery · Seattle, WANPI 1578643540
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (51.3%), consulting fees and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Medtronic accounts for 65.4% of it on its own, with 9 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $17,269 and has fallen 99.1% since, to $147 in 2025. Among neurological surgery clinicians in WA 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 77 payments — averaging $488.23 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medtronic$25K
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$10K
- Guerbet LLC$2K
- Stryker$537
- Johnson & Johnson$454
- Microvention, Inc.$262
- plus $487 from 4 others
Across 6 payments — averaging $20,248 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$62K
- Guerbet LLC$60K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$8,50023%
- Speaking & faculty fees$19,30051%
- Travel & lodging$6,22317%
- Food & beverage$3,5719%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 33 | $24,594 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 10 | $9,608 |
| Guerbet LLC | 4 | $1,653 |
| Stryker | 16 | $537 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 4 | $454 |
| Microvention, Inc. | 3 | $262 |
| Penumbra, Inc. | 4 | $235 |
| Balt USA, LLC | 1 | $174 |
| Viz.ai, Inc. | 1 | $57 |
| Route 92 Medical, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
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.
- TRUFILL$9,495
- Pipeline$8,698
- Pulsar Vascular PulseRider Aneurysm Neck Reconstruction Device$8,500
- Covidien-Access$6,074
- Lipiodol$1,653
- PULSERIDER$995
- Solitaire$145
- EMBOTRAP II Revascularization Device$141
- Penumbra System$137
- STENT$136
- Embotrap$100
How this compares
$37,594 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 175 neurological surgery providers in Washington.
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 neurological surgery in Seattle
- Rod OskouianSeattle$2.4M
- Christoph HofstetterSeattle$768K
- Stephen MonteithSeattle$151K
- Jean-Christophe LevequeSeattle$120K
- Vijay YanamadalaSeattle$85K
- Hoan Vu TranSeattle$78K
- Martin RutkowskiSeattle$62K
- Bailey ZampellaSeattle$38K
- Elias EliasSeattle$35K
- Ryder GwinnSeattle$35K
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.