Vibhor Krishna
Neurological Surgery · Chapel Hill, NCNPI 1114008364
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (44.8%), consulting fees and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Medtronic accounts for 93.7% of it on its own, with 7 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $36,877, more than ten times the $2,587 reported in 2019.
Across 107 payments — averaging $851.22 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medtronic$85K
- Insightec,inc$3K
- Biogen$1K
- Insightec,ltd$807
- Abbott$141
- Novocure Inc.$140
- plus $203 from 2 others
Across 73 payments — averaging $21,302 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.
- Insightec,ltd$666K
- Insightec,inc$509K
- Medtronic$355K
- Abbott$25K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$32,39536%
- Speaking & faculty fees$40,78045%
- Travel & lodging$14,21716%
- Food & beverage$3,6884%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 87 | $85,383 |
| Insightec,inc | 14 | $3,092 |
| Biogen | 1 | $1,315 |
| Insightec,ltd | 1 | $807 |
| Abbott | 1 | $141 |
| Novocure Inc. | 1 | $140 |
| Nevro Corp. | 1 | $112 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $91 |
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.
- INTELLIS ADAPTIVESTIM$46,060
- STEALTHSTATION S8 PLATFORM$12,863
- INCEPTIV$4,130
- Exablate$2,869
- PERCEPT PC BRAINSENSE$2,483
- SYNCHROMEDII$2,360
- StealthStation$1,481
- INFLATEFX GEN II FRACTURE MANAGEMENT$990
- Senza Spinal Cord Stimulation System$112
How this compares
$91,080 in reported general payments places this provider in the 80th percentile of 196 neurological 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.
Other neurological surgery in Chapel Hill
- Michael GalganoChapel Hill$146K
- Deb BhowmickChapel Hill$91K
- Joshua LoewensteinChapel Hill$40K
- Cheerag UpadhyayaChapel Hill$28K
- Robert IsaacsDurham$6.6M
- Christopher ShaffreyDurham$4.5M
- Domagoj CoricCharlotte$2.3M
- John ThomasWilmington$1.8M
- Alexander PowersKernersville$1.7M
- Charles BranchAdvance$1.6M
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.