Nathaniel Kister, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Charleston, WVNPI 1629239413
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — food and beverage (54.2%), travel and lodging and education — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 19 manufacturers reported payments, led by Medtronic at 27.6% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $4,233 and has fallen 80.5% since, to $824 in 2025.
Across 111 payments — averaging $73.28 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medtronic$2K
- Intuitive Surgical$2K
- Atricure, Inc.$1K
- Johnson & Johnson$863
- Kestra Medical Technology Services, Inc.$540
- Getinge USA Sales, LLC$458
- plus $1K from 13 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$2,72734%
- Food & beverage$4,40754%
- Education$1,00012%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medtronic | 13 | $2,242 |
| Intuitive Surgical | 10 | $1,844 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 21 | $1,038 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 17 | $863 |
| Kestra Medical Technology Services, Inc. | 16 | $540 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 9 | $458 |
| Abiomed | 2 | $217 |
| Livanova USA, Inc. | 1 | $160 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 12 | $158 |
| Cvrx, Inc. | 1 | $143 |
| Galvanize Therapeutics, Inc | 1 | $127 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $85 |
| On Target Laboratories, Inc | 1 | $85 |
| Clearflow Inc. | 1 | $74 |
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 1 | $25 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 1 | $22 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 1 | $21 |
| Abbott | 1 | $18 |
| Corcym Inc | 1 | $16 |
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.
- CoreValve Evolut$1,935
- Da Vinci Surgical System$1,661
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$313
- PROLENE$230
- Perceval$160
- Barostim Neo System$143
- Harmonic$129
- ALIYA SYSTEM$127
- Echelon Circular$122
- Impella$119
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX, MODELS$118
- DERMABOND PRINEO$115
- CARDIOHELP$115
- HARMONIC Product Family$108
- EVICEL Fibrin Sealant (Human)$108
- STRATAFIX$108
How this compares
$8,134 in reported general payments places this provider in the 55th percentile of 30 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in West Virginia.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in West Virginia →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Repatha SureclickEvolocumab | 12 | $6,629 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Charleston
- Ghulam AbbasCharleston$50K
- Andres Jadue TobarCharleston$20K
- Robert HerronCharleston$11K
- Sandeep KashyapCharleston$8K
- Peter Rodgers-FischlCharleston$8K
- Ramanathan SampathCharleston$565
- Mohammad KhanCharleston$12
- James RankinMorgantown$1.6M
- Vinay BadhwarMorgantown$56K
- Seyfi TokerMorgantown$32K
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.