Sujith Cherian, MD
Pulmonary Disease · Houston, TXNPI 1144550070
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — travel and lodging (44.3%), education and food and beverage — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 18 manufacturers reported payments, led by Intuitive Surgical at 29.0% of the total. 2025 is the largest year on record at $4,276, 2.8 times the $1,552 reported in 2019.
Across 81 payments — averaging $106.25 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$3K
- Medtronic$1K
- Pulmonx Corporation$1K
- Body Vision Medical Inc.$838
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$768
- Insmed, Inc.$368
- plus $1K from 12 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$3,81644%
- Food & beverage$2,03124%
- Education$2,75932%
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 | 1 | $2,500 |
| Medtronic | 20 | $1,460 |
| Pulmonx Corporation | 6 | $1,337 |
| Body Vision Medical Inc. | 5 | $838 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 4 | $768 |
| Insmed, Inc. | 17 | $368 |
| Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc. | 2 | $225 |
| Merit Medical Systems Inc | 2 | $200 |
| Noah Medical Corporation | 4 | $196 |
| Pinnacle Biologics, Inc | 2 | $195 |
| Tempus AI, Inc | 1 | $148 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 2 | $107 |
| Sanofi | 3 | $80 |
| ERBE USA Inc | 2 | $70 |
| Merck | 3 | $59 |
| AstraZeneca | 2 | $29 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 1 | $15 |
| United Therapeutics Corporation | 4 | $10 |
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.
- Da Vinci Surgical System$2,500
- ILLUMISITE$1,158
- Pulmonx Endobronchial Valve EBV$1,074
- LungVision$789
- AERO Stent and Delivery System$162
- Tempus Pixel$148
- UPTRAVI$135
- OPSUMIT$135
- Photofrin$123
How this compares
$8,606 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 904 pulmonary disease 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 pulmonary disease in Houston
- Nicola HananiaHouston$1.3M
- Sandeep SahayHouston$378K
- Zeenat SafdarHouston$291K
- Howard HuangHouston$194K
- Brandy McKelvyHouston$168K
- Alexander StadnykHouston$158K
- Lisa KopasHouston$120K
- Sandeep GuptaHouston$118K
- Roberto CasalHouston$113K
- Dileep PuppalaHouston$108K
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.