Richard Stahl, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · la Jolla, CANPI 1164420782
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 227 payments — averaging $138.96 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Edwards Lifesciences$26K
- Atricure, Inc.$1K
- Baxter Healthcare$874
- Medtronic$515
- Getinge USA Sales, LLC$419
- Abbott$378
- plus $2K from 23 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$3484%
- Travel & lodging$2,01720%
- Food & beverage$7,51576%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Edwards Lifesciences | 70 | $26,420 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 22 | $1,160 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 19 | $874 |
| Medtronic(3 entities) | 20 | $515 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 18 | $419 |
| Abbott | 14 | $378 |
| Abiomed | 13 | $364 |
| Bolton Medical Inc | 4 | $203 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 3 | $172 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 5 | $160 |
| Cvrx, Inc. | 12 | $123 |
| Grifols USA, LLC | 4 | $92 |
| BD | 2 | $90 |
| Davol Inc. | 2 | $86 |
| LSI Solutions Inc | 2 | $74 |
| Impactortho, Inc. | 1 | $52 |
| Haemonetics Corporation | 1 | $47 |
| Stryker | 2 | $41 |
| Elevate Surgical Co | 2 | $36 |
| Conmed Corporation | 1 | $32 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 2 | $30 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 1 | $29 |
| Vertex | 1 | $25 |
| Covidien LP | 1 | $25 |
| Z-medica, LLC | 1 | $23 |
| Aroa Biosurgery Incorporated | 1 | $22 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $16 |
| Innovation Technologies 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.
How this compares
$31,543 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 546 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in California.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in California →
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 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in la Jolla
- Scot Brewsterla Jolla$184K
- Thomas FogartyPortola Valley$3.7M
- Steven GundryPalm Springs$1.6M
- Gregory FontanaThousand Oaks$1.4M
- Gansevoort DunningtonSaint Helena$963K
- Armin KiankhooySaint Helena$941K
- Ara KlijianMurrieta$916K
- Fernando FleischmanLos Angeles$901K
- Michael FischbeinPalo Alto$899K
- Jay LeeLos Angeles$856K
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.