Vikas Sharma
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Salt Lake City, UTNPI 1619282225
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — travel and lodging (55.8%), education and food and beverage — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 7 manufacturers reported payments, led by Intuitive Surgical at 44.3% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $6,363 and has fallen 67.0% since, to $2,099 in 2025.
Across 54 payments — averaging $251.99 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$6K
- Edwards Lifesciences$3K
- Atricure, Inc.$1K
- Abbott$1K
- Boston Scientific$1K
- Artivion, Inc.$619
- plus $224 from 1 others
Across 50 payments — averaging $5200.69 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.
- AbbVie$132K
- Atricure, Inc.$81K
- Medtronic$47K
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$7,59556%
- Food & beverage$1,51211%
- Education$4,50033%
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 | 11 | $6,021 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 15 | $3,314 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 9 | $1,368 |
| Abbott | 10 | $1,049 |
| Boston Scientific | 6 | $1,012 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 2 | $619 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $224 |
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$5,637
- PASCAL$2,042
- GENERAL - THERAPIES$853
- TRICLIP$815
- On-X$596
- COREVALVE EVOLUT R$224
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$126
How this compares
$13,607 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 46 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Utah.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Utah →
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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Metoprolol Succinate | 13 | $83 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Salt Lake City
- Jason GlotzbachSalt Lake City$45K
- Ganesh KumpatiSalt Lake City$14K
- John StringhamSalt Lake City$14K
- David AffleckSalt Lake City$14K
- Nicolas ContrerasSalt Lake City$14K
- Rafe ConnorsSalt Lake City$13K
- Praveen SridharSalt Lake City$10K
- Guilherme Czelusniak de OliveiraSalt Lake City$8K
- Ammar AsbanSalt Lake City$8K
- Rachael EssigSalt Lake City$6K
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.