George Cheng, MD
Pulmonary Disease · San Diego, CANPI 1316174568
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (43.5%), education and consulting fees — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 25 manufacturers reported payments, led by Intuitive Surgical at 57.4% of the total. Among pulmonary disease clinicians in CA with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 5% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 448 payments — averaging $649.03 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$167K
- Olympus America Inc.$35K
- Cook Incorporated$23K
- Pinnacle Biologics, Inc$18K
- Medtronic$16K
- Boston Scientific$12K
- plus $21K from 19 others
Across 5 payments — averaging $4009.00 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.
- Medtronic$10K
- Concordia Laboratories Inc.$8K
- Covidien LP$2K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$50,64417%
- Speaking & faculty fees$126,61044%
- Travel & lodging$10,0723%
- Food & beverage$18,8966%
- Education$84,54529%
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 | 226 | $166,887 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 47 | $34,758 |
| Cook Incorporated | 5 | $23,038 |
| Pinnacle Biologics, Inc | 32 | $17,693 |
| Medtronic | 32 | $15,958 |
| Boston Scientific | 29 | $11,503 |
| Serpex Medical Inc | 4 | $6,332 |
| Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. | 3 | $2,622 |
| Richard Wolf Medical Instruments Corp. | 5 | $2,539 |
| Pulmonx Corporation | 15 | $1,531 |
| Olympus Corporation | 3 | $1,100 |
| Noah Medical Corporation | 7 | $1,065 |
| Veran Medical Technologies, Inc. | 3 | $1,020 |
| Gyrus ACMI, Inc. | 4 | $837 |
| Covidien LP | 4 | $741 |
| Steris Corporation | 7 | $677 |
| Olympus Medical Systems Corporation | 2 | $660 |
| ERBE USA Inc | 6 | $560 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 6 | $348 |
| Galvanize Therapeutics, Inc | 2 | $298 |
| Body Vision Medical Inc. | 2 | $180 |
| Pentax Of America, Inc. | 1 | $176 |
| AstraZeneca | 1 | $106 |
| Stryker | 1 | $103 |
| On Target Laboratories, Inc | 1 | $34 |
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.
- Da Vinci Surgical System$144,688
- Blue Rhino$23,038
- DA VINCI SP$17,350
- EVES EUS ULTRASOUND BRONCHOFIBERVIDEOSCOPE$17,030
- Photofrin$17,014
- Spiration Valve System$11,268
- Single-Use flexible Video Bronchoscope$8,097
- DAR$7,740
- superDimension$5,370
- GENERAL PULMONARY$4,906
- Shiley$2,998
- ACQUIRE$1,841
- GENERAL - THERAPIES$1,588
- GALAXY$1,038
- ION$1,000
- SPiN Vision Video Processor$880
- Pulmonx Endobronchial Valve EBV$786
- EVIS EXERA III BRONCHOVIDEOSCOPE$655
- PROBE DRIVING UNIT$655
- TRUFREEZE$371
How this compares
$290,767 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 1,261 pulmonary disease 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.
Other pulmonary disease in San Diego
- Samir MakaniSan Diego$179K
- Shari BrazinskySan Diego$82K
- Samuel LouieSacramento$2.8M
- Shyamsunder SubramanianTracy$1.5M
- Toby MaherLos Angeles$1.3M
- Rajkumar DasguptaPasadena$930K
- Hoang leFountain Valley$814K
- Kevin FussellEncinitas$788K
- Revati ShreeniwasStanford$726K
- David PhamWestminster$571K
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.