Has Harrell Lightfoot, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $18,167 in general payments to Harrell Lightfoot, MD across 67 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 Harrell Lightfoot, 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 Harrell Lightfoot, 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.

Harrell Lightfoot, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Greensboro, NCNPI 1619137312

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

The money is spread across several categories — education (55.0%), speaking fees and food and beverage — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 89.9% of it on its own, with 17 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $8,094 and has fallen 50.1% since, to $4,035 in 2025.

$18,167in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 67 payments — averaging $271.15 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Intuitive Surgical$16K
Boston Scientific$532
Atricure, Inc.$486
Johnson & Johnson$183
On Target Laboratories, Inc$78
Medtronic$72
plus $493 from 12 others

What the payments were for

Speaking & faculty fees$4,00022%
Travel & lodging$2,02911%
Food & beverage$2,13712%
Education$10,00055%

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	21	$16,324
Boston Scientific	3	$532
Atricure, Inc.	18	$486
Johnson & Johnson	2	$183
On Target Laboratories, Inc	1	$78
Medtronic	2	$72
Abiomed	2	$70
Edwards Lifesciences	3	$63
TELA Bio, Inc.	1	$57
Zimmer Biomet	2	$46
Davol Inc.	2	$45
Getinge USA Sales, LLC	2	$42
Angiodynamics, Inc.	3	$42
Octapharma USA, Inc.	1	$36
Biomerieux Inc	1	$32
Polymedics Innovations Inc.	1	$23
Acell, Inc.	1	$20
Bardy Diagnostics, 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.

How this compares

$18,167 in reported general payments places this provider in the 70th percentile of 132 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in North Carolina.

See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in North Carolina →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$70,745

Medicare patients

Services billed

178

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 Greensboro

Steven HendricksonGreensboro$28K
Edward GerhardtGreensboro$15K
Joseph RubelowskyRaleigh$2.2M
Matthew HartwigDurham$406K
Gregory SmaroffNew Bern$205K
David HarpoleDurham$177K
Carmelo MilanoLumberton$169K
Walter ChitwoodGreenville$139K
Michael MillChapel Hill$137K
Eric SkipperCharlotte$132K

See the full list for North Carolina →

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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