Leonidas Tapias Vargas, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Cleveland, OHNPI 1215160031
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — food and beverage (35.7%), education and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 63.7% of it on its own, with 25 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $7,344, 2.3 times the $3,189 reported in 2019.
Across 109 payments — averaging $131.89 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$9K
- Covidien LP$2K
- Johnson & Johnson$506
- Atricure, Inc.$464
- Davol Inc.$430
- AstraZeneca$407
- plus $1K from 20 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$4,14629%
- Food & beverage$5,12836%
- Education$5,10335%
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 | 44 | $9,157 |
| Covidien LP | 4 | $2,327 |
| Johnson & Johnson(3 entities) | 11 | $506 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 8 | $464 |
| Davol Inc. | 4 | $430 |
| AstraZeneca | 3 | $407 |
| Surgical Theater. Inc. | 1 | $207 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 9 | $196 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $98 |
| Novocure Inc. | 3 | $90 |
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 3 | $64 |
| BD | 2 | $62 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 3 | $52 |
| Biom'up France SAS | 1 | $41 |
| Potrero Medical, Inc. | 1 | $39 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $30 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $28 |
| Avanos Medical | 1 | $27 |
| Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc. | 1 | $25 |
| Pinnacle Biologics, Inc | 1 | $21 |
| Acumed LLC | 1 | $20 |
| Veran Medical Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC | 1 | $17 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $17 |
| Nestle Healthcare Nutrition Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 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.
- DA VINCI SP$4,000
- Da Vinci Surgical System$3,068
- superDimension$2,217
- DAVINCI XI$1,000
- Progel Applicator Spray Tips$289
- ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM (CRYO2)$256
- SURGICEL NU-KNIT$150
- PHASIX$125
- TAGRISSO$125
- ETHICON$119
How this compares
$14,376 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 245 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Ohio.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Ohio →
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 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Cleveland
- Alejandro BribriescoCleveland$968K
- Alan Marc GillinovCleveland$926K
- Edward SolteszCleveland$835K
- Salil DeoCleveland$419K
- Tomislav MihaljevicCleveland$387K
- Christopher ToweCleveland$370K
- Eric RoselliCleveland$253K
- Cristian BaezaCleveland$237K
- Zhen-Yu TongCleveland$222K
- Sudish MurthyCleveland$120K
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.