George Merriman, MD
Surgery · Shreveport, LANPI 1285670356
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — education (59.5%), travel and lodging and food and beverage — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 88.3% of it on its own, with 6 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $12,161 and has fallen 96.7% since, to $398 in 2024. Among surgery clinicians in LA 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 48 payments — averaging $350.11 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Intuitive Surgical$15K
- Johnson & Johnson$934
- Reshape Lifesciences Inc.$745
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$124
- Coopersurgical, Inc.$71
- Conmed Corporation$71
- plus $21 from 1 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$5003%
- Travel & lodging$3,66622%
- Food & beverage$2,38114%
- Education$10,00060%
- Gifts$140%
- Entertainment$2451%
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 | 27 | $14,839 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 12 | $934 |
| Reshape Lifesciences Inc. | 4 | $745 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 1 | $124 |
| Coopersurgical, Inc. | 1 | $71 |
| Conmed Corporation | 2 | $71 |
| W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
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.
- Da Vinci Surgical System$14,107
- LINX Reflux Management System$488
- Harmonic$127
- Echelon Flex$127
- Enseal$127
- ECHELON ENDOPATH Stapler$124
- ECHELON FLEX Stapler$124
- ECHELON ENDOPATH$109
How this compares
$16,805 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 381 surgery 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.
Other surgery in Shreveport
- Kamel BraktaShreveport$95K
- Brian DockendorfShreveport$57K
- Frances AlloccoShreveport$38K
- James BarnesShreveport$33K
- Amos SitShreveport$29K
- John SavoyShreveport$22K
- Ronald MowadShreveport$19K
- Rohit RanganathShreveport$12K
- Jennifer KimShreveport$12K
- John TaborBaton Rouge$567K
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.