Has Alaa Afifi, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $663 in general payments to Alaa Afifi, MD across 5 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Alaa Afifi, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Alaa Afifi, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Alaa Afifi, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Santa Ana, CANPI 1609802552

Payments from drug & device makers

$663in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 5 payments — averaging $132.55 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Medtronic$489
Edwards Lifesciences$174

What the payments were for

Food & beverage$663100%

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
Medtronic	4	$489
Edwards Lifesciences	1	$174

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

$663 in reported general payments places this provider in the 20th percentile of 546 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in California.

See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in California →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$512,412

Medicare patients

131

Services billed

2,404

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
Albuterol Sulfate HfaAlbuterol Sulfate	27	$949
Bumetanide	36	$863
ClopidogrelClopidogrel Bisulfate	45	$708
Metoprolol Succinate	38	$428
Atorvastatin Calcium	25	$358
Amiodarone Hcl	15	$352
Pantoprazole Sodium	39	$325
Hydralazine Hcl	12	$186
Acetaminophen-CodeineAcetaminophen With Codeine	15	$174
Metoprolol Tartrate	16	$173
Tamsulosin Hcl	16	$128
Furosemide	20	$40

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Santa Ana

Thomas FogartyPortola Valley$3.7M
Steven GundryPalm Springs$1.6M
Gregory FontanaThousand Oaks$1.4M
Gansevoort DunningtonSaint Helena$963K
Armin KiankhooySaint Helena$941K
Ara KlijianMurrieta$916K
Fernando FleischmanLos Angeles$901K
Michael FischbeinPalo Alto$899K
Jay LeeLos Angeles$856K
William HiesingerPalo Alto$815K

See the full list for California →

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.

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