Walter Chou, MD
Pulmonary Disease · San Diego, CANPI 1477824498
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 94.9% of the total across 16 separate payments, which is the pattern of a clinician who attends manufacturer presentations rather than one with a consulting arrangement. It is spread thinly across 9 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 23.3% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. 2025 is the largest year on record at $265, 4.7 times the $56 reported in 2019. That places this record below the midpoint for pulmonary disease clinicians in CA, where the typical reported total is $1,248.
Across 16 payments — averaging $24.61 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Boehringer Ingelheim$92
- Grifols USA, LLC$64
- ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)$56
- Insmed, Inc.$55
- Intuitive Surgical$36
- C. R. Bard, Inc. & Subsidiaries$33
- plus $58 from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$37495%
- Education$205%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 3 | $92 |
| Grifols USA, LLC | 2 | $64 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 3 | $56 |
| Insmed, Inc. | 3 | $55 |
| Intuitive Surgical | 1 | $36 |
| C. R. Bard, Inc. & Subsidiaries | 1 | $33 |
| Verona Pharma, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| CSL Behring | 1 | $20 |
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 1 | $17 |
How this compares
$394 in reported general payments places this provider in the 30th percentile of 1,261 pulmonary disease providers in California.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Trelegy ElliptaFluticasone/Umeclidin/Vilanter | 18 | $15,673 |
| SymbicortBudesonide/Formoterol Fumarate | 11 | $2,577 |
| Albuterol Sulfate HfaAlbuterol Sulfate | 16 | $185 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other pulmonary disease in San Diego
- George ChengSan Diego$291K
- Samir MakaniSan Diego$179K
- Shari BrazinskySan Diego$82K
- Samuel LouieSacramento$2.8M
- Shyamsunder SubramanianTracy$1.5M
- Toby MaherLos Angeles$1.3M
- Rajkumar DasguptaPasadena$930K
- Hoang leFountain Valley$814K
- Kevin FussellEncinitas$788K
- Revati ShreeniwasStanford$726K
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.