Parag Butala, MD
Plastic Surgery · Gastonia, NCNPI 1245498443
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $5,146 of the $6,982 with a category attached, or 73.7%. 20 manufacturers reported payments, led by AbbVie at 34.9% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $3,407 and has fallen 69.4% since, to $1,042 in 2025.
Across 105 payments — averaging $66.50 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- AbbVie$2K
- Mentor Worldwide LLC$2K
- KCI USA, Inc.$1K
- Merz North America, Inc.$295
- Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc.$144
- Access Pro Medical, LLC$90
- plus $527 from 14 others
Across 14 payments — averaging $1305.21 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.
- Mentor Worldwide LLC$15K
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$4K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$90013%
- Travel & lodging$93613%
- Food & beverage$5,14674%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 33 | $2,434 |
| Mentor Worldwide LLC | 46 | $2,342 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 3 | $1,149 |
| Merz North America, Inc. | 1 | $295 |
| Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc. | 2 | $144 |
| Access Pro Medical, LLC | 1 | $90 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 4 | $82 |
| Sientra, Inc. | 2 | $77 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 1 | $77 |
| Davol Inc. | 1 | $63 |
| Solventum Corporation | 1 | $39 |
| Organogenesis Inc. | 1 | $32 |
| Galderma Laboratories, L.p. | 2 | $30 |
| Stryker | 1 | $25 |
| Heron Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Vertex | 1 | $22 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 1 | $16 |
| Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $12 |
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
$6,982 in reported general payments places this provider in the 70th percentile of 128 plastic surgery providers in North Carolina.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fluorouracil | 29 | $2,229 |
| Triamcinolone Acetonide | 20 | $280 |
| Ketoconazole | 12 | $235 |
| Mupirocin | 15 | $124 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 16 | $58 |
| Sulfamethoxazole-TrimethoprimSulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim | 16 | $28 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other plastic surgery in Gastonia
- Charalampos SiotosGastonia$9K
- Matthew ApplebaumGastonia$5K
- Nicholas ClavinCharlotte$562K
- Luther HoltonWilmington$533K
- Theodore NyameCharlotte$364K
- Bill KortesisWinston Salem$321K
- Howard LevinsonDurham$167K
- Suhail MithaniDurham$146K
- Claire DillinghamGreensboro$142K
- Cynthia DiehlRaleigh$87K
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.