Christine Montesa, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · San Diego, CANPI 1467616581
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 98 payments — averaging $64.33 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Atricure, Inc.$2K
- Abiomed$1K
- Edwards Lifesciences$769
- Baxter Healthcare$415
- Davol Inc.$357
- Biomerieux Inc$354
- plus $810 from 14 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$681%
- Travel & lodging$1,90430%
- Food & beverage$4,33269%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Atricure, Inc. | 33 | $2,443 |
| Abiomed | 13 | $1,155 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 17 | $769 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 7 | $415 |
| Davol Inc. | 5 | $357 |
| Biomerieux Inc | 5 | $354 |
| Stryker | 1 | $156 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $124 |
| AOP Health US, LLC | 1 | $94 |
| Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc. | 3 | $84 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 1 | $73 |
| Medtronic | 2 | $72 |
| Bayer | 2 | $39 |
| Solventum Corporation | 1 | $34 |
| Merck | 1 | $28 |
| Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc. | 1 | $27 |
| Haemonetics Corporation | 1 | $24 |
| Chiesi USA, Inc. | 1 | $22 |
| Pfizer | 1 | $19 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, 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.
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$890
- ISOLATOR SURGICAL ABLATION SYSTEM$890
- ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$890
- DISSECTOR$890
- ATRICURE SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$468
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$233
- ARISTA$160
- SPY-PHI SYSTEM$156
- VIDAS NEPHROCHECK$136
- INSPIRIS RESILIA aortic valve$134
- VERSAJET II$124
- FLOSEAL$117
How this compares
$6,304 in reported general payments places this provider in the 50th percentile of 546 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in California.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in California →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 11 | $77 |
| Mupirocin | 11 | $76 |
| Atorvastatin Calcium | 12 | $49 |
| Amlodipine Besylate | 12 | $31 |
| Furosemide | 11 | $26 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in San Diego
- Gert PretoriusSan Diego$734K
- James HempSan Diego$244K
- Mark OnaitisSan Diego$207K
- Robert AdamsonSan Diego$149K
- 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
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.