Bryan Helsel, MD
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Fort Sam Houston, TXNPI 1891875399
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 327 payments — averaging $52.20 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$10K
- Medtronic$2K
- Atricure, Inc.$2K
- Edwards Lifesciences$982
- Bolton Medical Inc$466
- Zimmer Biomet$443
- plus $2K from 21 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$2,39514%
- Food & beverage$7,56344%
- Education$7,11142%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical | 28 | $9,586 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 53 | $1,966 |
| Atricure, Inc. | 107 | $1,966 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 33 | $982 |
| Bolton Medical Inc | 12 | $466 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 13 | $443 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 23 | $278 |
| Abiomed | 8 | $232 |
| Philips North America LLC | 5 | $162 |
| AstraZeneca | 11 | $142 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 5 | $125 |
| Abbott | 3 | $113 |
| Getinge USA Sales, LLC | 4 | $109 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $99 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 4 | $80 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 2 | $52 |
| Kls-martin L.p. | 3 | $47 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 2 | $38 |
| CSL Behring | 2 | $35 |
| C. R. Bard, Inc. & Subsidiaries | 1 | $25 |
| Elutia, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Medistim USA, Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $19 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Artivion, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Novartis | 1 | $13 |
| Coopersurgical, Inc. | 1 | $11 |
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.
- DAVINCI XI$5,500
- Da Vinci Surgical System$3,067
- Valiant Navion$733
- Avalus$150
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$139
- ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$130
- CoreValve Evolut$121
- (6557) Mechanical Tools$113
- EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$110
- Myo/WireUltra-Thin Temporary Pacing Wires$105
- Rotating Surgical Punches$105
- Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$102
How this compares
$17,069 in reported general payments places this provider in the 65th percentile of 424 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Texas.
See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rosuvastatin Calcium | 36 | $299 |
| Metoprolol Succinate | 15 | $202 |
| Isosorbide Mononitrate ErIsosorbide Mononitrate | 18 | $114 |
| Pantoprazole Sodium | 18 | $114 |
| Metoprolol Tartrate | 23 | $106 |
| Ibuprofen | 17 | $69 |
| ClopidogrelClopidogrel Bisulfate | 11 | $68 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 20 | $40 |
| Furosemide | 12 | $17 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Fort Sam Houston
- Robert SmithPlano$2.9M
- Michael ReardonHouston$2.7M
- William RyanPlano$2.1M
- Faraz KerendiAustin$1.6M
- Robert HebelerDallas$1.2M
- William BrinkmanPlano$1.2M
- Robert RipleyHouston$817K
- Michael MackPlano$796K
- Katherine HarringtonPlano$723K
- Danny RamzyHouston$620K
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.