Thomas Walters, MD
Ophthalmology · Austin, TXNPI 1609852664
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $10,250 of the $15,837 with a category attached, or 64.7%. AbbVie accounts for 69.8% of it on its own, with 13 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $11,119 and has fallen 93.2% since, to $760 in 2025. Among ophthalmology clinicians in TX with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 116 payments — averaging $136.53 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- AbbVie$11K
- Alcon$3K
- Carl Zeiss Meditec USA, Inc.$510
- Rxsight Inc$497
- Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.$387
- Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc.$232
- plus $618 from 8 others
Across 481 payments — averaging $4972.77 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.
- AbbVie$1.6M
- Alcon Research LLC$345K
- Ocular Therapeutix, Inc.$291K
- Shire North American Group Inc$44K
- Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc.$43K
- Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc.$30K
- plus $34K from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$10,25065%
- Food & beverage$5,52335%
- Other$640%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 31 | $11,061 |
| Alcon | 45 | $2,532 |
| Carl Zeiss Meditec USA, Inc. | 6 | $510 |
| Rxsight Inc | 6 | $497 |
| Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. | 3 | $387 |
| Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. | 5 | $232 |
| Biotissue Holdings Inc. | 4 | $150 |
| Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. | 6 | $146 |
| Bausch & Lomb Americas Inc. | 1 | $125 |
| Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision, Inc. | 3 | $65 |
| Tearlab Corp | 3 | $63 |
| Glaukos Corporation | 1 | $29 |
| Rayner Intraocular Lenses Limited | 1 | $23 |
| Novartis | 1 | $18 |
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.
- Clareon$543
- RXSIGHT CONTACT LENS$425
- RXSIGHT INJECTOR CARTRIDGE$425
- RXSIGHT INJECTOR HANDPIECE$425
- RXSIGHT LIGHT DELIVERY DEVICE (LDD)$425
- LIGHT ADJUSTABLE LENS (LAL)$425
- Centurion$255
- LenSx$249
- ARGOS$227
- ARTEVO 800$213
- FORUM$210
- AcrySof IQ VIVITY IOL$139
- CEQUA$120
- AcrySof IQ PanOptix$120
- AcrySof$109
- IOLMaster 500$108
- CLARUS$106
- Clareon PanOptix Pro$104
How this compares
$15,837 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 1,355 ophthalmology 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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Latanoprost | 79 | $953 |
| Prednisolone Acetate | 19 | $904 |
| MoxifloxacinMoxifloxacin Hcl | 15 | $366 |
| Timolol Maleate | 22 | $195 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other ophthalmology in Austin
- Chirag JhaveriAustin$240K
- Sheila BarbarinoAustin$232K
- Aaron RollerAustin$202K
- Philip StoreyAustin$161K
- Robert WongAustin$113K
- Farhan IrshadAustin$111K
- Edward WoodAustin$110K
- Ryan YoungAustin$105K
- Steven DellAustin$94K
- Shelley GhafooriAustin$73K
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.