Has Gregory Eckholdt, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $9,788 in general payments to Gregory Eckholdt, MD across 125 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Gregory Eckholdt, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Gregory Eckholdt, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Gregory Eckholdt, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Covington, LANPI 1649232133

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by food and beverage: $7,699 of the $9,788 with a category attached, or 78.6%. 23 manufacturers reported payments, led by Medtronic at 36.7% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $3,396 and has fallen 82.6% since, to $590 in 2025.

$9,788in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 125 payments — averaging $78.31 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Medtronic$4K
Abiomed$2K
Baxter Healthcare$719
Edwards Lifesciences$621
Boston Scientific$610
Atricure, Inc.$393
plus $2K from 17 others

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$2,09021%
Food & beverage$7,69979%

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
Medtronic(2 entities)	42	$3,595
Abiomed	26	$1,978
Baxter Healthcare	8	$719
Edwards Lifesciences	6	$621
Boston Scientific	8	$610
Atricure, Inc.	5	$393
Philips North America LLC	7	$350
Endologix LLC	2	$255
Shockwave Medical, Inc	2	$237
Bard Access Systems, Inc.	2	$163
Davol Inc.	2	$141
Biotronik Inc.	2	$132
Zimmer Biomet	2	$117
Covidien LP	1	$112
Z-medica, LLC	1	$98
Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc.	1	$96
BD	1	$58
Artivion, Inc.	2	$37
E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C.	1	$18
Silk Road Medical, Inc.	1	$16
LSI Solutions Inc	1	$15
Kerecis Limited	1	$14
Chiesi USA, Inc.	1	$13

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.

COREVALVE EVOLUT R$1,677
Impella$1,586
TISSEEL$452
CoreValve Evolut$450
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$425
Alto Abdominal Stent Graft System$255
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$187
Shockwave IVL System with the Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL Catheter$146
ATRICURE SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$141
Progel Applicator Spray Tips$129
GENERAL VASCULAR INTERVENTION$125
ATRICURE ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION$123
ATRICURE CRYOSURGICAL SYSTEM$123
PerClot$123
INTERLOCK$121
ELUVIA$115
(9520) IGT Devices Undivided$113
V-Loc$112
SternaLock Blu$103

How this compares

$9,788 in reported general payments places this provider in the 65th percentile of 75 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Louisiana.

See all thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Louisiana →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$156,271

Medicare patients

108

Services billed

372

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
Cilostazol	14	$649
Mupirocin	61	$507
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	36	$264
Chlorhexidine Gluconate	59	$228
Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen	17	$145
ClopidogrelClopidogrel Bisulfate	15	$124
Sulfamethoxazole-TrimethoprimSulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim	13	$57

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Covington

Charles DicorteCovington$12K
Kerry PaapeCovington$7K
Edward KofskyCovington$5K
Richard GitterMetairie$1.5M
Emily CassidyBaton Rouge$1.3M
David AllieLafayette$666K
Vern KellerLafayette$394K
Aditya BansalNew Orleans$140K
Daniel BecklesLake Charles$80K
Nicholas LeblancBaton Rouge$70K

See the full list for Louisiana →

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.

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