Has Melinda Cathey received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $3,565 in general payments to Melinda Cathey across 209 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 Melinda Cathey 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 Melinda Cathey 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.

Melinda Cathey

Medical · Eatonton, GANPI 1154493344

Payments from drug & device makers

$3,565in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 209 payments — averaging $17.06 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

AbbVie$901
Novo Nordisk$337
AstraZeneca$265
Pfizer$206
Lilly USA, LLC$146
Boehringer Ingelheim$124
plus $2K from 34 others

What the payments were for

Food & beverage$3,565100%

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
AbbVie	72	$901
Novo Nordisk	17	$337
AstraZeneca	9	$265
Pfizer	12	$206
Lilly USA, LLC	8	$146
Boehringer Ingelheim	7	$124
Johnson & Johnson	8	$122
Dexcom, Inc.	5	$108
Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.	6	$106
Bayer	5	$95
Sumitomo Pharma America, Inc.	5	$93
Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd.	5	$84
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.	3	$83
Shield Therapeutics Inc	1	$79
Amgen	4	$63
Astellas Pharma US Inc	3	$61
Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC	3	$59
GSK	3	$54
Novartis	3	$45
Corcept Therapeutics	2	$44
Merck	2	$42
Exact Sciences	3	$42
Lundbeck LLC	2	$39
Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	2	$34
Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC	2	$32
Idorsia Pharmaceuticals US Inc	2	$31
Abbott	2	$30
Esperion Therapeutics, Inc.	1	$23
ITI, Inc. (d/b/a Intra-cellular Therapies, Inc.)	1	$21
Kaleo, Inc.	1	$20
Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	1	$20
Axsome Therapeutics, Inc.	1	$20
Corium, LLC	1	$20
Urovant Sciences Inc	1	$20
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.	1	$18
Biogen	1	$18
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc	1	$17
Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.	1	$15
Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc.	1	$15
Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc.	1	$14

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.

BREZTRI$131
AIRSUPRA$131

How this compares

$3,565 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 950 medical providers in Georgia.

See all medical providers in Georgia →

Most prescribed under Part D

Drug	Claims	Cost to plans & patients
Pregabalin	15	$344
Zolpidem Tartrate	43	$262
Temazepam	40	$258
Acetaminophen-CodeineAcetaminophen With Codeine	15	$140
Alprazolam	29	$92
Eszopiclone	12	$82
Clonazepam	23	$46

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other medical in Eatonton

Tomas ChaoWoodstock$1.9M
Kimberly OrleckAtlanta$727K
Audrey GibsonGainesville$302K
Lisa WeissCanton$283K
Laura BushFayetteville$146K
Michael KelleherMarietta$126K
Juliena GigonMarietta$122K
Felicia HoffmanRoswell$114K
Sally BrumbillLithia Springs$110K
Danna Dennis-CalderAtlanta$87K

See the full list for Georgia →

Where these figures come from

Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.

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