Thoracic Surgery in California
9 providers, $29,459 in total reported payments from drug and device makers. Ranked below by lifetime general payments.
Ranking high here usually means a consulting or royalty arrangement, not wrongdoing. Payments to device inventors and trial investigators are legal, disclosed, and concentrated in a small number of people — which is exactly why a list like this has a steep top and a long flat tail.
What Medicare pays thoracic surgery clinicians in California
Across 9 thoracic surgery clinicians in California who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $1,795,343 in total — an average of $199,483 each, of which $199,483 was for services and the rest for drugs administered in the office.
This is not a salary. The rest is what Medicare allowed for services these clinicians billed — Original Medicare fee-for-service only. It excludes Medicare Advantage, which now covers more than half of Medicare enrollees, along with Medicaid and every commercial insurer, so for most clinicians it is a fraction of their practice. It is also gross revenue: staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums all come out of it before anyone is paid. Anyone quoting a figure like this as physician pay is misreading it.
Ranked by reported payments
- 1Jacques KpodonuNewport Beach$14,773
- 2Yahya TaliehModesto$11,786
- 3Hakob DavtyanSan Bernardino$2,068
- 4Syam VunnamadalaAnaheim$832
- 5James ZalezSanta Monica$0
- 6Oluwole FajoluWoodland Hills$0
- 7William AlexRiverside$0
- 8Christopher LeachTorrance$0
- 9Rajaratnam SkantharajaModesto$0