Robert Hetz, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Houston, TXNPI 1093064495
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — food and beverage (50.4%), education and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 36 manufacturers reported payments, led by Intuitive Surgical at 48.2% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $10,777 and has fallen 69.1% since, to $3,335 in 2025.
Across 167 payments — averaging $131.51 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$11K
- Edwards Lifesciences$2K
- Abiomed$2K
- Atricure, Inc.$2K
- Abbott$1K
- Artivion, Inc.$932
- plus $4K from 30 others
Across 2 payments — averaging $1975.00 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.
- Artivion, Inc.$4K
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$2,39911%
- Food & beverage$11,06450%
- Education$8,50039%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical | 27 | $10,594 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 17 | $1,962 |
| Abiomed | 16 | $1,667 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 22 | $1,656 |
| Abbott | 14 | $1,233 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 6 | $932 |
| Medtronic | 8 | $818 |
| Shockwave Medical, Inc | 5 | $707 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 5 | $477 |
| Davol Inc. | 8 | $303 |
| Medinc Of Texas | 4 | $200 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $142 |
| Amgen | 1 | $137 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $137 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 4 | $136 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 1 | $127 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 5 | $119 |
| Stryker | 2 | $90 |
| Lexington Medical, Inc. | 1 | $74 |
| Cvrx, Inc. | 2 | $51 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 2 | $50 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 1 | $45 |
| Hemosonics LLC | 1 | $32 |
| Merck | 1 | $30 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 1 | $28 |
| On Target Laboratories, Inc | 1 | $25 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $25 |
| Dilon Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Aesculap, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Cardiovascular Systems Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Teleflex LLC | 1 | $16 |
| Pfizer | 1 | $14 |
| Convatec 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.
- DAVINCI XI$8,500
- Impella$1,404
- Da Vinci Surgical System$1,391
- ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$950
- AMDS-Ascyrus Medical$700
- MITRIS RESILIA Mitral Valve$690
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$637
- Shockwave IVL System with the Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL Catheter$632
- Avalus$400
- MitraClip$351
- ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$258
- Epic$194
- GORE TAG Thoracic Branch Endoprosthesis$184
- KONECT RESILIA$164
- ARISTA AH FLEXITIP$148
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$145
- AVEIR$143
- SternaLock Blu$142
- Repatha$137
- COMET$137
How this compares
$21,963 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 424 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Texas.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Texas →
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.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Houston
- Michael ReardonHouston$713K
- Danny RamzyHouston$527K
- Randall WolfHouston$283K
- Min KimHouston$185K
- Marc MoonHouston$142K
- Ismael Salas de ArmasHouston$121K
- Shawn GrothHouston$110K
- Mahesh RamchandaniHouston$110K
- Gabriel LoorHouston$106K
- Mara AntonoffHouston$104K
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.