Has Christopher Lao, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $7,553 in general payments to Christopher Lao, MD across 8 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 Christopher Lao, 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 Christopher Lao, 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.

Christopher Lao, MD

Medical Oncology · Ann Arbor, MINPI 1669558524

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $6,427 of the $7,553 with a category attached, or 85.1%. E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. accounts for 98.7% of it on its own, with 1 other manufacturer making up the rest.

$7,553in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 8 payments — averaging $944.11 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.$7K
Array Biopharma Inc$97

$1,971,906in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 93 payments — averaging $21,203 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.

E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.$1.6M
Dynavax Technologies Corporation$138K
Merck$110K
Novartis$101K
Genentech, Inc.$18K
Pfizer$313

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$6,42785%
Travel & lodging$85711%
Food & beverage$2694%

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
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.	7	$7,456
Array Biopharma Inc	1	$97

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.

OPDIVO$3,997

How this compares

$7,553 in reported general payments places this provider in the 65th percentile of 170 medical oncology providers in Michigan.

See all medical oncology providers in Michigan →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$1,690

Medicare patients

Services billed

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
Hydrocortisone	11	$484

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other medical oncology in Ann Arbor

Harry ErbaAnn Arbor$1.1M
Frank WeinbergAnn Arbor$195K
Francis WordenAnn Arbor$142K
Maha HussainAnn Arbor$114K
Moshe TalpazAnn Arbor$83K
Vaibhav SahaiAnn Arbor$80K
Howard TerebeloAnn Arbor$47K
Angel QinAnn Arbor$41K
Erin CobainAnn Arbor$38K
Phillip PalmbosAnn Arbor$37K

See the full list for Michigan →

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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