Richard Lee, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Augusta, GANPI 1134238728
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $14,500 of the $19,114 with a category attached, or 75.9%. Atricure, Inc. accounts for 86.4% of it on its own, with 13 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2020 at $8,526 and has fallen 91.0% since, to $764 in 2025.
Across 75 payments — averaging $254.85 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Atricure, Inc.$17K
- Medtronic$1K
- Abiomed$545
- Edwards Lifesciences$485
- Boehringer Ingelheim$54
- Zimmer Biomet$45
- plus $178 from 8 others
Across 2 payments — averaging $3679.20 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.
- Amgen$7K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$14,50076%
- Travel & lodging$1,6349%
- Food & beverage$2,98016%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Atricure, Inc. | 39 | $16,510 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 14 | $1,299 |
| Abiomed | 6 | $545 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 5 | $485 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 1 | $54 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $45 |
| Abbott | 2 | $33 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 1 | $32 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $23 |
| Sanofi | 1 | $23 |
| Novartis | 1 | $19 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $18 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
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.
- LARIAT SUTURE DELIVERY DEVICE$7,758
- ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$5,059
- ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$2,776
- SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$2,727
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$574
- CoreValve Evolut$460
- Impella$394
- COREVALVE EVOLUT R$299
- ATRICURE ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION$172
- ATRICURE SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$172
- PASCAL$167
- Penditure$156
- Micra$137
How this compares
$19,114 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 144 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Georgia.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Georgia →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Warfarin Sodium | 20 | $236 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Augusta
- Timothy HunterAugusta$22K
- Vijaykumar PatelAugusta$16K
- Preston SparksAugusta$9K
- William KitchensAugusta$9K
- Dominic GalloAugusta$8K
- Jeremy LondonSavannah$1.6M
- Vinod ThouraniMarietta$1.2M
- Manu SanchetiAtlanta$805K
- John PuskasAtlanta$332K
- Douglas MurphyAtlanta$254K
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.