Has Michael Defrain, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $127,858 in general payments to Michael Defrain, MD across 228 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 Michael Defrain, 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 Michael Defrain, 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.

Michael Defrain, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Pensacola, FLNPI 1851369490

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by speaking fees: $79,500 of the $127,858 with a category attached, or 62.2%. LSI Solutions Inc accounts for 80.9% of it on its own, with 22 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $68,985, more than ten times the $633 reported in 2019. Among thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) clinicians in FL with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.

$127,858in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 228 payments — averaging $560.78 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

LSI Solutions Inc$103K
Arthrex$13K
Medtronic$5K
Intuitive Surgical$2K
Abbott$2K
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$1K
plus $2K from 17 others

$155,041in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 55 payments — averaging $2818.92 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.

Medtronic$155K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$8,7007%
Speaking & faculty fees$79,50062%
Travel & lodging$23,99119%
Food & beverage$15,66612%

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
LSI Solutions Inc	12	$103,494
Arthrex	11	$12,532
Medtronic(2 entities)	124	$5,225
Intuitive Surgical	13	$1,915
Abbott	12	$1,668
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	14	$1,252
Atricure, Inc.	7	$461
Edwards Lifesciences	5	$293
Getinge USA Sales, LLC	8	$277
Abiomed	5	$271
AstraZeneca	1	$98
Zimmer Biomet	2	$51
Cvrx, Inc.	2	$50
Haemonetics Corporation	2	$45
BD	1	$42
Johnson & Johnson	1	$39
La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company	2	$35
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)	1	$23
Cardiva Medical, Inc.	1	$21
Coastal Medical Technologies LLC	1	$20
Corcym Inc	1	$17
Cook Medical LLC	1	$16
Angiodynamics, Inc.	1	$11

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.

RAM$103,468
COR KNOT$101,205
SEW-EASY$64,757
MI CHORD$64,757
miniRUMEL$64,757
SHOULDER SUTURE FIBERWIRE$3,500
C1$2,263
MULTISTATION$2,263
Da Vinci Surgical System$1,526
COREVALVE EVOLUT R$1,213
GORE TAG Thoracic Endoprosthesis$643
TRICLIP$446
CoreValve Evolut$291
ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM (CRYO2)$290
GORE TAG Conformable Thoracic Endoprosthesis$159
KONECT RESILIA$120
SHOULDER IMPLANTS SWIVELOCKS COMPOSITE ANCHORS$110
Avalus$103

How this compares

$127,858 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 408 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Florida.

See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Florida →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$344,478

Medicare patients

260

Services billed

717

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
Metoprolol Tartrate	14	$31

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Pensacola

David RobaczewskiPensacola$58K
Anthony NunezOrlando$4.8M
Barry WintonLargo$687K
Paul DigiorgiPort Charlotte$666K
John PirrisJacksonville$640K
Jacques FontaineTampa$630K
Andrew ShermanTampa$517K
Rogerio CarrilloHialeah$515K
Daniel O'HairFort Myers$429K
Luis HerreraOrlando$409K

See the full list for Florida →

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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