David Bjerken, MD
Surgery · Little River, SCNPI 1518964626
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $30,188 of the $41,558 with a category attached, or 72.6%. Vantive US Healthcare LLC accounts for 63.2% of it on its own, with 14 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $26,512, more than ten times the $312 reported in 2019. Among surgery clinicians in SC 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 86 payments — averaging $483.23 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Vantive US Healthcare LLC$26K
- Medtronic$6K
- Merit Medical Systems Inc$4K
- Laminate Medical Technologies Inc.$3K
- Mozarc Medical US LLC$797
- Baxter Healthcare$534
- plus $914 from 9 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$30,18873%
- Speaking & faculty fees$4,08010%
- Travel & lodging$3,5699%
- Food & beverage$3,7229%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Vantive US Healthcare LLC | 30 | $26,270 |
| Medtronic | 14 | $5,835 |
| Merit Medical Systems Inc | 1 | $4,080 |
| Laminate Medical Technologies Inc. | 3 | $3,129 |
| Mozarc Medical US LLC | 8 | $797 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 13 | $534 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 3 | $446 |
| Covidien LP | 1 | $109 |
| Venturemed Group, Inc. | 1 | $94 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 1 | $71 |
| Amgen | 2 | $52 |
| Elutia, Inc. | 3 | $49 |
| Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. | 3 | $46 |
| Lemaitre Vascular, Inc. | 2 | $30 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 1 | $15 |
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.
- Renal - PD$25,538
- Argyle$5,362
- Performa Catheters$4,080
- VasQ External Support$3,114
- ELLIPSYS VASCULAR ACCESS SYSTEM$815
- GORE VIABAHN Endoprosthesis$156
- GORE VIABAHN VBX Balloon Expandable Endo$155
- VIABAHN Endoprosthesis with Heparin Bioactive Surface$135
- Palindrome$127
How this compares
$41,558 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 553 surgery providers in South Carolina.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ClopidogrelClopidogrel Bisulfate | 12 | $124 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 12 | $25 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery in Little River
- Ari KramerSpartanburg$502K
- Chitharanjan PullattranaCharleston$408K
- John ScottGreenville$242K
- Jason CundiffGreenville$235K
- Steven KahnCharleston$197K
- John KramerPawleys Island$194K
- William CobbGreenville$159K
- Steven LauzonSumter$143K
- Shanu KothariGreenville$122K
- Charles MitchellMoncks Corner$87K
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.