Walter Blessing, MD
Surgery · Charleston, SCNPI 1558344093
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (32.0%), food and beverage and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 84.8% of it on its own, with 26 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $6,824 and has fallen 97.0% since, to $208 in 2025. Among surgery clinicians in SC with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 129 payments — averaging $116.23 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$13K
- Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc.$729
- AbbVie$367
- Medtronic$160
- Stryker$156
- TELA Bio, Inc.$135
- plus $734 from 21 others
What the payments were for
- Speaking & faculty fees$4,80032%
- Travel & lodging$3,17421%
- Food & beverage$4,00627%
- Education$3,00020%
- Gifts$140%
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 | 64 | $12,714 |
| Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc. | 4 | $729 |
| AbbVie | 18 | $367 |
| Medtronic | 8 | $160 |
| Stryker | 1 | $156 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 6 | $135 |
| Vantive US Healthcare LLC | 1 | $86 |
| Avita Medical Americas, LLC | 1 | $57 |
| Access Pro Medical, LLC | 1 | $55 |
| Smith+Nephew | 2 | $53 |
| Abbott | 2 | $50 |
| Asensus Surgical, Inc. | 1 | $49 |
| Heron Therapeutics, Inc. | 2 | $45 |
| Davol Inc. | 2 | $42 |
| Sanara Medtech Inc. | 2 | $40 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 2 | $39 |
| Novartis | 1 | $30 |
| Kerecis Limited | 1 | $26 |
| Covidien LP | 2 | $25 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $23 |
| Innocoll Pharmaceuticals Limited | 1 | $23 |
| Bioventus LLC | 1 | $17 |
| Checkpoint Surgical, Inc | 1 | $16 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Hologic Sales And Service, LLC | 1 | $15 |
| Teleflex LLC | 1 | $15 |
| Conmed Corporation | 1 | $13 |
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$9,625
- DA VINCI SP$1,800
- SPY-PHI SYSTEM$156
How this compares
$14,994 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 553 surgery providers in South 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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Ibuprofen | 62 | $180 |
| Levothyroxine Sodium | 11 | $180 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 53 | $66 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery in Charleston
- Chitharanjan PullattranaCharleston$408K
- Steven KahnCharleston$197K
- Nicolas PopeCharleston$59K
- Bryan ThomasCharleston$19K
- Virgilio GeorgeCharleston$19K
- Ahmad AlqassiehCharleston$16K
- David McCabeCharleston$15K
- Ari KramerSpartanburg$502K
- John ScottGreenville$242K
- Jason CundiffGreenville$235K
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.