Has Stephen Downing, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $8,997 in general payments to Stephen Downing, MD across 138 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 Stephen Downing, 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 Stephen Downing, 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.

Stephen Downing, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Buffalo, NYNPI 1104861178

Payments from drug & device makers

$8,997in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 138 payments — averaging $65.20 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Edwards Lifesciences$4K
Abbott$2K
Medtronic$1K
Abiomed$1K
Artivion, Inc.$374
Inari Medical, Inc.$168
plus $229 from 5 others

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$5,36060%
Food & beverage$3,59440%
Education$430%

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	63	$4,148
Abbott	18	$1,752
Medtronic(2 entities)	27	$1,321
Abiomed	18	$1,004
Artivion, Inc.	5	$374
Inari Medical, Inc.	2	$168
Terumo Cardiovascular Systems Corporation	1	$133
Galvanize Therapeutics, Inc	1	$34
Getinge USA Sales, LLC	1	$32
Smith+Nephew	1	$16
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)	1	$13

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.

MITRIS RESILIA Mitral Valve$1,619
Mitra Clip system$1,054
INSPIRIS RESILIA aortic valve$1,036
Freestyle$930
Impella$557
FLOWTRIEVER CATHETER, S$231
Carpentier-Edwards Physio II Annuloplasty Ring$216
Cardiac non-SynerGraft$188
ON-X AORTIC HEART VALVE WITH CONFORM-X SEWING RING AND EXTENDED HOLDER$188
SAPIEN 3 Ultra RESILIA$136
Virtuosaph$133
3F$101

How this compares

$8,997 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th percentile of 383 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in New York.

See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in New York →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$76,248

Medicare patients

Services billed

157

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 Buffalo

Chukwumere NwoguBuffalo$969K
Nathaniel IvanickBuffalo$425K
Aubrey GallowayNew York$5.7M
Mathew WilliamsNew York$4.3M
Nasser AltorkiNew York$2.2M
Prasad AdusumilliNew York$2M
Sanjay SamySyracuse$1.7M
David AdamsNew York$1.6M
Koji TakedaNew York$1.3M
Gilbert TangNew York$1.2M

See the full list for New York →

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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