George Christensen, DO
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Edgewood, KYNPI 1669637187
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by education: $11,500 of the $19,136 with a category attached, or 60.1%. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 65.3% of it on its own, with 22 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $14,535, more than ten times the $656 reported in 2019.
Across 141 payments — averaging $135.72 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$13K
- Atricure, Inc.$1K
- Edwards Lifesciences$1K
- Abiomed$850
- Medtronic$807
- Abbott$745
- plus $2K from 17 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$9605%
- Food & beverage$6,67635%
- Education$11,50060%
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 | 14 | $12,501 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 16 | $1,152 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 23 | $1,043 |
| Abiomed | 15 | $850 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 10 | $807 |
| Abbott | 20 | $745 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 7 | $471 |
| Corcym Inc | 3 | $313 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 7 | $256 |
| Surgical Specialties Corporation (US), Inc. (dba Corza Medical) | 2 | $221 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 5 | $187 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 2 | $167 |
| Boston Scientific | 2 | $140 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 3 | $68 |
| Medistim USA, Inc. | 1 | $48 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 3 | $36 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 2 | $33 |
| Chiesi USA, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Legacy Ortho LLC | 1 | $18 |
| Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals International, PLC | 1 | $17 |
| Viz.ai, Inc. | 1 | $16 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $15 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $13 |
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$11,500
- Da Vinci Surgical System$936
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$562
- COREVALVE EVOLUT R$512
- Impella$449
- SAPIEN 3 Ultra RESILIA$362
- ON-X AORTIC HEART VALVE WITH CONFORM-X SEWING RING AND EXTENDED HOLDER$313
- THORATEC HEARTMATE 3 LVAS IMPLANT KIT$256
- Perceval$248
- 3F$144
- RESTOREFLOW$144
- MITRIS RESILIA Mitral Valve$130
- Watchman$123
How this compares
$19,136 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 98 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Kentucky.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Kentucky →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Warfarin Sodium | 14 | $114 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Edgewood
- Mario Castillo-SangEdgewood$163K
- Michael KastenEdgewood$32K
- Juan Penaranda-CanalEdgewood$30K
- Royce CalhounEdgewood$20K
- Michael JohnsonEdgewood$8K
- Valerie WilliamsEdgewood$8K
- Michael IsingEdgewood$5K
- Steven PetersonLouisville$283K
- Edward CantuLexington$74K
- Mansi Shah-JadejaLexington$45K
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.