Young Choi, MD
Ophthalmology · Vestavia, ALNPI 1780799684
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $3,563 of the $4,625 with a category attached, or 77.0%. Carl Zeiss Meditec Cataract Technology Inc. accounts for 70.1% of it on its own, with 10 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $2,885 and has fallen 84.8% since, to $439 in 2025.
Across 44 payments — averaging $105.11 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Carl Zeiss Meditec Cataract Technology Inc.$3K
- Alcon$492
- Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.$400
- Rxsight Inc$283
- Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision, Inc.$80
- Carl Zeiss Meditec USA, Inc.$36
- plus $94 from 5 others
Across 11 payments — averaging $6516.36 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.
- Carl Zeiss Meditec Cataract Technology Inc.$72K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$3,56377%
- Food & beverage$1,02622%
- Gifts$361%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Carl Zeiss Meditec Cataract Technology Inc. | 10 | $3,240 |
| Alcon | 20 | $492 |
| Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. | 1 | $400 |
| Rxsight Inc | 5 | $283 |
| Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision, Inc. | 2 | $80 |
| Carl Zeiss Meditec USA, Inc. | 1 | $36 |
| Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. | 1 | $29 |
| NEW World Medical,inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Bausch & Lomb Americas Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Maculogix, Inc. | 1 | $12 |
| Eyevance Pharmaceuticals LLC | 1 | $12 |
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.
How this compares
$4,625 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 197 ophthalmology providers in Alabama.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Prednisolone Acetate | 349 | $28,798 |
| Ketorolac Tromethamine | 376 | $13,413 |
| Ofloxacin | 344 | $7,471 |
| Latanoprost | 24 | $429 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other ophthalmology in Vestavia
- John ParkerVestavia$19K
- Bret FisherHomewood$545K
- Caroline WatsonHuntsville$292K
- Ronald GrossFairhope$143K
- Kristin BainsBirmingham$40K
- Sebastian HeersinkDothan$33K
- Lindsay RhodesBirmingham$18K
- Timothy JohnsonTuscaloosa$15K
- James LewisBirmingham$15K
- In ShinMontgomery$12K
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.