Has Stephen Tonks, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $8,417 in general payments to Stephen Tonks, MD across 191 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 Stephen Tonks, 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 Stephen Tonks, 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.

Stephen Tonks, MD

Vascular Surgery · Knoxville, TNNPI 1689937989

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by food and beverage: $5,459 of the $8,417 with a category attached, or 64.9%. 23 manufacturers reported payments, led by Penumbra, Inc. at 24.5% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $2,691 and has fallen 51.2% since, to $1,313 in 2025.

$8,417in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 191 payments — averaging $44.07 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Penumbra, Inc.$2K
Silk Road Medical, Inc.$1K
Philips North America LLC$1K
Medtronic$832
Inari Medical, Inc.$708
Boston Scientific$382
plus $2K from 17 others

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$2,91135%
Food & beverage$5,45965%
Education$461%

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
Penumbra, Inc.	4	$2,060
Silk Road Medical, Inc.	14	$1,378
Philips North America LLC	46	$1,041
Medtronic(3 entities)	42	$832
Inari Medical, Inc.	2	$708
Boston Scientific	14	$382
Endologix LLC	2	$374
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	7	$318
Organogenesis Inc.	10	$256
Angiodynamics, Inc.	4	$192
Johnson & Johnson(2 entities)	9	$175
Tactile Systems Technology Inc	5	$161
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)	11	$146
Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc.	5	$95
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.	5	$67
Convatec Inc.	2	$65
Lemaitre Vascular, Inc.	2	$37
Abbott	1	$31
Cardinal Health 200 LLC	1	$23
Solventum Corporation	1	$21
Cagent Vascular Inc	1	$21
Atricure, Inc.	1	$19
Sanara Medtech Inc.	2	$15

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.

Indigo System$1,990
ENROUTE Transcarotid Neuroprotection System$926
ENHANCE Transcarotid Peripheral Access Kit$754
FLOWTRIEVER CATHETER, S$691
CT THROMBECTOMY SYSTEM KIT$691
ENROUTE Transcarotid Stent System$651
ENROUTE 0.014 Guidewire$651
AFX$374
Ovation$374
ENROUTE Transcarotid Stent$275
IN.PACT Admiral$165
GORE TAG Thoracic Branch Endoprosthesis$130
(4067) Tack Endo Sys BTK$122
Image Guided Therapy Agito$122
(5091) Amb Mon & Diag Und$110
Auryon Laser System 100-120 Vac$104
ENROUTE .014 Guidewire$103

How this compares

$8,417 in reported general payments places this provider in the 55th percentile of 117 vascular surgery providers in Tennessee.

See all vascular surgery providers in Tennessee →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$671,415

Medicare patients

511

Services billed

3,741

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
EliquisApixaban	11	$6,953
ClopidogrelClopidogrel Bisulfate	269	$1,891
Cilostazol	13	$156
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	27	$121
Naproxen	16	$34
Tramadol Hcl	13	$23
Alprazolam	27	$22

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other vascular surgery in Knoxville

Scott StevensKnoxville$53K
Christopher PollockKnoxville$31K
Christopher CallicuttKnoxville$14K
Afshin SkibbaKnoxville$13K
Michael McNallyKnoxville$9K
Oscar GrandasKnoxville$9K
Andrew KropilakKnoxville$6K
Daniel ClairNashville$993K
Anton Dias PereraGermantown$832K
Bryan FisherHendersonville$417K

See the full list for Tennessee →

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.

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