Lucas Witer, MD
Surgery · Charleston, SCNPI 1134431281
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $7,247 of the $11,259 with a category attached, or 64.4%. 13 manufacturers reported payments, led by Abbott at 41.0% of the total.
Across 158 payments — averaging $71.26 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Abbott$5K
- Atricure, Inc.$2K
- Medtronic$2K
- Abiomed$1K
- Baxter Healthcare$434
- Paragonix Technologies, Inc.$344
- plus $1K from 7 others
Across 21 payments — averaging $1578.74 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.
- Abbott$32K
- Transmedics, Inc.$718
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$4,01236%
- Food & beverage$7,24764%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Abbott | 85 | $4,618 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 32 | $1,731 |
| Medtronic | 12 | $1,555 |
| Abiomed | 11 | $1,268 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 4 | $434 |
| Paragonix Technologies, Inc. | 3 | $344 |
| Smith+Nephew | 3 | $338 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 2 | $269 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 1 | $186 |
| Avanos Medical | 2 | $136 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 1 | $133 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $124 |
| Cvrx, Inc. | 1 | $122 |
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.
- THORATEC HEARTMATE 3 LVAS IMPLANT KIT$1,366
- MC3 NAUTILUS(TM) ECMO OXYGENATOR$1,214
- Paragonix SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System$873
- CardioMEMS HF System$841
- ATRICURE ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION$788
- Impella$788
- LUNGguard$423
- PICO$267
- MitraClip$256
- SherpaCool Box$239
- PREVELEAK$228
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$186
- STERNALOCK BLU SYSTEM$147
- ATRICURE CRYOSURGICAL SYSTEM$135
- COR KNOT$133
- STRATAFIX$124
- PROLENE$124
- SternaLock Blu$123
- Barostim Neo System$122
- ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$121
How this compares
$11,259 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 553 surgery providers in South Carolina.
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 surgery in Charleston
- Chitharanjan PullattranaCharleston$408K
- Steven KahnCharleston$197K
- Nicolas PopeCharleston$59K
- Bryan ThomasCharleston$19K
- Virgilio GeorgeCharleston$19K
- Ahmad AlqassiehCharleston$16K
- Walter BlessingCharleston$15K
- David McCabeCharleston$15K
- Ari KramerSpartanburg$502K
- John ScottGreenville$242K
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.