Has Rama Shankar, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $1,768 in general payments to Rama Shankar, MD across 70 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Rama Shankar, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Rama Shankar, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Rama Shankar, MD

Hospitalist · Jacksonville, FLNPI 1871590539

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 100.0% of the total across 70 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 16 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 19.6% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $600 and has fallen 51.8% since, to $289 in 2025. Among hospitalist clinicians in FL 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.

$1,768in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 70 payments — averaging $25.26 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Johnson & Johnson$347
Pfizer$282
Abiomed$192
Novartis$181
AbbVie$176
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.$122
plus $470 from 10 others

What the payments were for

Food & beverage$1,768100%

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
Johnson & Johnson	13	$347
Pfizer	13	$282
Abiomed	2	$192
Novartis	9	$181
AbbVie	7	$176
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.	6	$122
Viiv Healthcare Company	1	$93
AstraZeneca(2 entities)	5	$92
Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC	3	$66
Bayer	2	$44
Merck	2	$40
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	2	$36
Boehringer Ingelheim	2	$34
Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc.	1	$25
Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc.	1	$21
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)	1	$20

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.

Impella$126
XARELTO$120

How this compares

$1,768 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 1,570 hospitalist providers in Florida.

See all hospitalist providers in Florida →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$98,546

Medicare patients

405

Services billed

1,058

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
Vancomycin Hcl	29	$1,812
CefuroximeCefuroxime Axetil	30	$272
Metoprolol Succinate	18	$226
Pantoprazole Sodium	30	$216
Ondansetron OdtOndansetron	14	$134
Cefdinir	13	$111
Atorvastatin Calcium	18	$96
Furosemide	13	$68
Amlodipine Besylate	13	$53
Spironolactone	13	$48
Prednisone	24	$28

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other hospitalist in Jacksonville

Carlos RojasJacksonville$6K
Anil SuryaprasadJacksonville$4K
Margaret WebbJacksonville$4K
Jeffrey GarlandJacksonville$3K
David ShupeJacksonville$3K
Deepak ScindiaJacksonville$2K
Murray EpsteinMiami$370K
Oliver AbelaFort Myers$77K
Joshua LenchusFort Lauderdale$73K
Tuncay TaskesenThe Villages$22K

See the full list for Florida →

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.

Is this you, or does something look wrong? →