Richard Clay, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Huntsville, ALNPI 1619960549
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — food and beverage (45.3%), consulting fees and education — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Baxter Healthcare accounts for 61.6% of it on its own, with 26 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $2,404 and has fallen 99.4% since, to $15 in 2025. That places this record below the midpoint for thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) clinicians in AL, where the typical reported total is $5,387.
Across 64 payments — averaging $94.62 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Baxter Healthcare$4K
- Abbott$827
- Edwards Lifesciences$295
- Artivion, Inc.$213
- Medtronic$174
- Hemosonics LLC$128
- plus $689 from 21 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$1,72328%
- Food & beverage$2,74345%
- Education$1,59026%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baxter Healthcare | 10 | $3,730 |
| Abbott | 10 | $827 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 2 | $295 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 4 | $213 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 3 | $174 |
| Hemosonics LLC | 1 | $128 |
| Abiomed | 3 | $61 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 3 | $59 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 3 | $53 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $51 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 3 | $50 |
| Elutia, Inc. | 3 | $48 |
| Convatec Inc. | 2 | $45 |
| Medela LLC | 2 | $44 |
| Chiesi USA, Inc. | 2 | $33 |
| Potrero Medical, Inc. | 1 | $31 |
| Clearflow Inc. | 1 | $30 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 1 | $29 |
| Cook Biotech Incorporated | 1 | $27 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $26 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 1 | $19 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 1 | $16 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $13 |
| Sanara Medtech Inc. | 1 | $13 |
| AstraZeneca | 1 | $12 |
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.
- FLOSEAL$3,313
- Epic Stented Tissue Valve$264
- COSEAL$248
- Trifecta GT Tissue Heart Valve$234
- HemoSphere$156
- BioGlue$151
- On-X$151
- COREVALVE EVOLUT R$148
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$139
- QUNATRA QPLUS SYSTEM$128
- Quantra QPlus System$128
- Epic$107
How this compares
$6,056 in reported general payments places this provider in the 50th percentile of 68 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Alabama.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Alabama →
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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Metoprolol Tartrate | 12 | $62 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Huntsville
- Frans VanwagenbergHuntsville$68K
- Shaf HoldenHuntsville$32K
- Gregory ThomasHuntsville$16K
- Andres SamayoaHuntsville$12K
- Juan GallegosHuntsville$9K
- Thomas WashburnHuntsville$3K
- Kyle EudaileyBirmingham$184K
- Carlton RandlemanBirmingham$161K
- James DaviesBirmingham$99K
- Parvez SultanVestavia$81K
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.