Charles Chester, MD
Psychiatry · Metairie, LANPI 1316953227
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $12,432 of the $14,442 with a category attached, or 86.1%. It is spread thinly across 33 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 20.2% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $3,764 and has fallen 85.2% since, to $559 in 2025. Among psychiatry clinicians in LA 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 698 payments — averaging $20.69 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc.$3K
- AbbVie$2K
- Lundbeck LLC$1K
- Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.$1K
- Johnson & Johnson$1K
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.$948
- plus $5K from 27 others
What the payments were for
- Speaking & faculty fees$1,84013%
- Travel & lodging$861%
- Food & beverage$12,43286%
- Education$841%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 53 | $2,915 |
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 112 | $1,623 |
| Lundbeck LLC | 75 | $1,252 |
| Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. | 55 | $1,170 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 59 | $1,092 |
| Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. | 59 | $948 |
| Alkermes, Inc. | 44 | $867 |
| ITI, Inc. (d/b/a Intra-cellular Therapies, Inc.) | 33 | $641 |
| Tris Pharma Inc | 22 | $417 |
| Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. | 25 | $410 |
| Almatica Pharma LLC | 17 | $342 |
| Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 13 | $298 |
| Corium, LLC | 14 | $267 |
| Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. | 9 | $233 |
| Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 13 | $213 |
| Bausch Health US, LLC | 10 | $209 |
| Idorsia Pharmaceuticals US Inc | 8 | $205 |
| Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 9 | $194 |
| Indivior Inc. | 10 | $158 |
| Noven Therapeutics, LLC | 9 | $152 |
| Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. | 9 | $152 |
| Merck | 8 | $125 |
| Eisai Inc. | 8 | $124 |
| Neos Therapeutics, LP | 5 | $94 |
| Shire North American Group Inc | 5 | $93 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 2 | $71 |
| Ironshore Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 2 | $43 |
| Adlon Therapeutics L.p. | 3 | $38 |
| Alfasigma USA, Inc. | 2 | $29 |
| Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc | 1 | $21 |
| Neuronetics, Inc. | 2 | $20 |
| Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| Brainsway USA Inc | 1 | $10 |
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
$14,442 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 474 psychiatry providers in Louisiana.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bupropion XlBupropion Hcl | 99 | $1,525 |
| Quetiapine Fumarate | 43 | $837 |
| Buspirone Hcl | 39 | $712 |
| Trazodone Hcl | 66 | $677 |
| Duloxetine Hcl | 20 | $545 |
| Bupropion Hcl SrBupropion Hcl | 29 | $443 |
| Venlafaxine Hcl ErVenlafaxine Hcl | 35 | $363 |
| Dextroamphetamine-AmphetamineDextroamphetamine/Amphetamine | 11 | $355 |
| Aripiprazole | 18 | $311 |
| Lamotrigine | 26 | $307 |
| Topiramate | 15 | $298 |
| Clonazepam | 80 | $297 |
| Escitalopram Oxalate | 20 | $273 |
| Zolpidem Tartrate | 22 | $202 |
| Fluoxetine Hcl | 42 | $190 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Companies that both paid and supply prescribed drugs
These companies both reported payments to this provider and make drugs the provider prescribed under Medicare Part D in 2024. For most specialties this overlap is expected — a cardiologist who is paid by a cardiology drugmaker also treats heart disease. It is shown so the reader can see it, not because it implies anything on its own.
| Company | Paid to this provider | Part D cost of their drugs |
|---|---|---|
| Almatica Pharma LLCSertraline Hcl | $342 | $13722 claims |
Reading this fairly. The Part D column is what drug plans and patients paid pharmacies — this provider received none of it, and it reflects how many patients they treat and what those drugs cost. Against peers, this provider's reported payments sit in the 95th percentile of 474 psychiatry providers in Louisiana.
Other psychiatry in Metairie
- Teri SchwarzMetairie$13K
- Julie CeasarMetairie$12K
- Kenneth SumnerMetairie$12K
- Jonathon RynningMetairie$11K
- Sidney SmithMetairie$10K
- Jose RodriguezMetairie$9K
- Patrick HayesLake Charles$837K
- Maria CruseThibodaux$522K
- Larry WarnerBaton Rouge$495K
- Gregory BrownShreveport$495K
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.