Christian Probst, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Knoxville, TNNPI 1023337136
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by education: $18,020 of the $24,513 with a category attached, or 73.5%. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 84.5% of it on its own, with 35 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $15,064 and has fallen 93.1% since, to $1,042 in 2025.
Across 192 payments — averaging $127.67 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$21K
- ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)$636
- Atricure, Inc.$614
- Johnson & Johnson$238
- Abbott$210
- Genentech USA, Inc.$208
- plus $2K from 30 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$2,1799%
- Food & beverage$4,31418%
- Education$18,02074%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical | 31 | $20,712 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 35 | $636 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 33 | $614 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 7 | $238 |
| Abbott | 6 | $210 |
| Genentech USA, Inc. | 11 | $208 |
| Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc. | 6 | $199 |
| Smoky Mountain Surgical LLC | 5 | $176 |
| Medtronic | 3 | $132 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 5 | $132 |
| AstraZeneca | 5 | $125 |
| Merck | 5 | $120 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 4 | $109 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 2 | $99 |
| Livanova USA, Inc. | 2 | $93 |
| Stryker | 2 | $73 |
| Sanara Medtech Inc. | 6 | $65 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 2 | $63 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 2 | $53 |
| Galvanize Therapeutics, Inc | 1 | $49 |
| Davol Inc. | 2 | $48 |
| C. R. Bard, Inc. & Subsidiaries | 2 | $46 |
| Ambu Inc. | 2 | $42 |
| Grifols USA, LLC | 1 | $29 |
| Octapharma USA, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 1 | $24 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Tempus AI, Inc | 1 | $23 |
| Convatec Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $21 |
| CSL Behring | 1 | $20 |
| Acera Surgical, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| BD | 1 | $16 |
| Teleflex LLC | 1 | $15 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
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.
- DAVINCI XI$13,500
- Da Vinci Surgical System$3,672
- ION$3,000
- Monarch Platform$109
- LifeVest$100
How this compares
$24,513 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 115 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Tennessee.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Tennessee →
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.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Knoxville
- Sean JordanKnoxville$8K
- Raymond DieterKnoxville$8K
- Christina GlennKnoxville$7K
- David GrahamKnoxville$6K
- Kimberly LindenKnoxville$6K
- William McAlexanderKnoxville$5K
- Carlo Martinez TorresKnoxville$5K
- William WalkerKnoxville$4K
- Grayson WheatleyNashville$900K
- V ReddyNashville$760K
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.