Michael Cho, MD
Neurological Surgery · Poughkeepsie, NYNPI 1710979174
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by travel and lodging: $2,371 of the $3,409 with a category attached, or 69.6%. Stryker accounts for 62.6% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $1,245 and has fallen 97.4% since, to $33 in 2025. That places this record below the midpoint for neurological surgery clinicians in NY, where the typical reported total is $3,235.
Across 38 payments — averaging $89.70 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Stryker$2K
- Choice Spine, LLC$394
- AbbVie$267
- Boston Scientific$220
- Medtronic$201
- Integra Lifesciences Corporation$109
- plus $86 from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$2,37170%
- Food & beverage$1,03830%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stryker | 11 | $2,132 |
| Choice Spine, LLC | 2 | $394 |
| AbbVie | 6 | $267 |
| Boston Scientific | 5 | $220 |
| Medtronic | 7 | $201 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 4 | $109 |
| Innovation Technologies Inc | 1 | $48 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $20 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
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.
- CASCADIA INTERBODY SYSTEM$1,026
- EVEREST SPINAL SYSTEM$997
- Blackhawk$326
- Tiger Shark$326
- Blackbird$326
- Tomcat$326
- VEO$326
- RESONATE$125
- QULIPTA$111
How this compares
$3,409 in reported general payments places this provider in the 50th percentile of 446 neurological surgery providers in New York.
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-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 82 | $1,314 |
| Levetiracetam | 28 | $891 |
| Fentanyl | 11 | $767 |
| Gabapentin | 68 | $657 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 40 | $390 |
| Cyclobenzaprine Hcl | 11 | $35 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 19 | $35 |
| Diazepam | 16 | $27 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other neurological surgery in Poughkeepsie
- Ryan DenhaeseWilliamsville$1.9M
- J MoccoNew York$1.6M
- Adnan SiddiquiWilliamsville$1.5M
- Leo HopkinsBuffalo$1.2M
- Aziz Basem QandahNew Hartford$1.1M
- Alejandro BerensteinNew York$1.1M
- Darryl LauNew York$915K
- Mark BilskyNew York$903K
- John PollinaWilliamsville$661K
- Michael GroffRochester$559K
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.