Nicole Ona
Acute Care · Houston, TXNPI 1588299861
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 95.3% of the total across 449 separate payments, which is the pattern of a clinician who attends manufacturer presentations rather than one with a consulting arrangement. It is spread thinly across 31 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 14.0% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $3,982 and has fallen 60.1% since, to $1,587 in 2025. Among acute care clinicians in TX with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 5% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 449 payments — averaging $26.36 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Abiomed$2K
- AstraZeneca$1K
- Medtronic$1K
- Johnson & Johnson$1K
- Novartis$921
- Amgen$814
- plus $5K from 25 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$5535%
- Food & beverage$11,28295%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Abiomed | 18 | $1,661 |
| AstraZeneca | 54 | $1,204 |
| Medtronic | 21 | $1,183 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 51 | $1,070 |
| Novartis | 48 | $921 |
| Amgen | 45 | $814 |
| Merck | 44 | $802 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 32 | $675 |
| Impulse Dynamics (USA) Inc. | 7 | $657 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 10 | $355 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 15 | $314 |
| Boston Scientific | 15 | $302 |
| Novo Nordisk | 11 | $301 |
| Scpharmaceuticals Inc. | 8 | $182 |
| Irhythm Technologies, Inc. | 8 | $149 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 8 | $143 |
| Amarin Pharma, Inc. | 7 | $137 |
| Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 7 | $133 |
| Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 9 | $132 |
| Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. | 6 | $94 |
| Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc. | 4 | $85 |
| Kestra Medical Technology Services, Inc. | 3 | $83 |
| Inari Medical, Inc. | 1 | $77 |
| Azurity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 4 | $67 |
| Pfizer | 3 | $65 |
| Altathera Pharmaceuticals LLC | 2 | $58 |
| Bayer | 2 | $42 |
| Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 2 | $40 |
| Lilly USA, LLC | 2 | $39 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 1 | $30 |
| Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, 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.
How this compares
$11,834 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 2,323 acute care providers in Texas.
Other acute care in Houston
- Afton DickersonHouston$27K
- Eleanor WeltgeHouston$25K
- Michelle JohnstonHouston$18K
- Amanda BergeronHouston$12K
- Prashanth AnumandlaHouston$12K
- Ken ChanHouston$11K
- Brittney RichardHouston$11K
- Antonio Paolo AlmacenHouston$11K
- Laura WuesteHouston$11K
- Jean UyHouston$10K
Where these figures come from
- Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
- Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.