Stephen Lai, MD
Otolaryngology · Houston, TXNPI 1326012725
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $71,690 of the $72,113 with a category attached, or 99.4%. Cardinal Health 414 LLC accounts for 99.2% of it on its own, with 2 other manufacturers making up the rest. Among otolaryngology clinicians in TX with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 5% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 44 payments — averaging $1638.94 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Cardinal Health 414 LLC$72K
- Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.$500
- Johnson & Johnson$72
Across 11 payments — averaging $81,462 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.
- Cardinal Health 414 LLC$896K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$71,69099%
- Food & beverage$4231%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cardinal Health 414 LLC | 42 | $71,542 |
| Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $500 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $72 |
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
$72,113 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 729 otolaryngology providers in Texas.
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 otolaryngology in Houston
- Amber LuongHouston$426K
- Arjuna KuperanHouston$348K
- Ron KarniHouston$317K
- Martin CitardiHouston$245K
- Michael KaplanHouston$202K
- Masayoshi TakashimaHouston$167K
- William YaoHouston$154K
- Andrew HuangHouston$137K
- Manish WaniHouston$100K
- Shane PahlavanHouston$95K
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.