Who Paid My Doc
Brett Starr
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) Hickory, NC Medical Doctor
NPI 1538579701 CMS profile 4211543
415 N Center St Ste 204, Hickory, NC 28601
General payments
$95,287
Research payments
$0
Ownership & investment interest
$0
Through program year 2025, Brett Starr of Hickory, NC is reported in the CMS Open Payments database as having received $95,287 across 238 general payments and $0 in research payments paid to them.
No combined total General, research and ownership are kept apart. Each is reported under its own rules, and ownership is not money that moved at all but the value of a stake held. A meal, a clinical trial grant and a shareholding do not add up to anything meaningful, so this site does not add them.
General payments for this record sit in the 93rd percentile of Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) profiles with reported payments. Percentile describes the distribution, not the conduct.
By program year
6 rows| Year | Kind | Relative to this record's peak year | Amount | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | General | $53,796 | 100 | |
| 2024 | General | $33,397 | 63 | |
| 2023 | General | $2,946 | 22 | |
| 2022 | General | $1,605 | 27 | |
| 2021 | General | $3,520 | 25 | |
| 2020 | General | $23 | 1 |
Beside peers
- Brett Starr
- Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) median
- Middle half of Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery)
- National median
In program year 2025, general payments to Brett Starr were reported at $53,796. Among 4,073 Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) profiles paid that year, the median was $791 and the middle half received between $208 and $3,074.
Show as a table
| Year | Brett Starr | Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) median | Middle half | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | $0 | $886 | $178–$3,167 | $163 |
| 2020 | $23 | $341 | $108–$1,605 | $114 |
| 2021 | $3,520 | $453 | $125–$1,886 | $132 |
| 2022 | $1,605 | $695 | $180–$2,566 | $149 |
| 2023 | $2,946 | $745 | $205–$2,662 | $160 |
| 2024 | $33,397 | $799 | $214–$2,967 | $164 |
| 2025 | $53,796 | $791 | $208–$3,074 | $169 |
Breakdown
A payment can name more than one product, so these amounts overlap and do not add up to the general-payment figure.
Prescribing to Medicare patients
Part D · data year 2024 · 3 drugsPart D claims
55
Drug cost
$237
Branded share of claims
41.8%
| Drug | Type | Relative to their largest | Claims | Drug cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gabapentin | Generic | 15 | $131 | |
| Clopidogrel Clopidogrel Bisulfate | Brand | 23 | $73 | |
| Metoprolol Tartrate | Generic | 17 | $33 |
Drug cost is what was paid for the drugs at the pharmacy — by Medicare, the patient and others — and is not money to the prescriber. Medicare Part D only: drugs dispensed to Medicare beneficiaries. A drug with fewer than 11 claims for this prescriber is not published, so a missing drug does not mean zero. The medians are for the 910 Part D prescribers listed as Thoracic Surgery; they describe a distribution and say nothing about conduct.
Billing to Medicare
Part B · data year 2024 · 99 billing codesPaid by Medicare
$117,456
Medicare patients
133
Services billed
608
| Condition among their Medicare patients | Relative to the most common | Share of patients |
|---|---|---|
| High blood pressure | 75% | |
| Ischemic heart disease | 73% | |
| Atrial fibrillation | 50% | |
| Arthritis | 50% | |
| Diabetes | 49% | |
| COPD | 45% | |
| Heart failure | 40% | |
| Chronic kidney disease | 34% |
Medicare Part B only: services billed to Medicare. Rows covering fewer than 11 beneficiaries are not published. Only drugs given in the clinic are itemised here; the rest of what this provider billed is in the total above.
Records
238 reportedEvery payment, record by record
Date, company, amount, what it was for and the product named — filter by year, kind and company, or download as CSV.
Other Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) in North Carolina
Joseph Rubelowsky
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Raleigh, NC
Matthew Hartwig
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Durham, NC
Gregory Smaroff
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · New Bern, NC
David Harpole
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Durham, NC
Carmelo Milano
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Lumberton, NC
Walter Chitwood
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Greenville, NC
Related records
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) in North Carolina
Practitioners in the same specialty and state, ranked by reported value.
All Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery)
Everyone recorded under this specialty, nationwide.
Doctors in North Carolina
Every practitioner in the state with a reported payment.
How to read this page
What each amount means, and what it does not mean.
What this means
U.S. law requires drug and medical device manufacturers to report payments and transfers of value they make to physicians and teaching hospitals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes that record each year. This page shows what was reported about this person, and nothing else.
An ownership interest is different from the other two. It is not a payment: it is a stake — shares, options, a partnership holding — that a physician or an immediate family member held in a manufacturer during that year. The figure shown is what the stake was reported to be worth.
Research payments frequently pass through a clinician to the institution running a trial, and rarely represent personal income. They should be read differently from general payments.