Has Helenmari Merritt, DO received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $286,788 in general payments to Helenmari Merritt, DO across 449 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 Helenmari Merritt, DO 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 Helenmari Merritt, DO 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.

Helenmari Merritt, DO

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Omaha, NENPI 1841456498

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $231,080 of the $286,788 with a category attached, or 80.6%. Atricure, Inc. accounts for 87.4% of it on its own, with 27 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $77,397 and has fallen 58.7% since, to $31,940 in 2025. Among thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) clinicians in NE 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.

$286,788in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 449 payments — averaging $638.73 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Atricure, Inc.$251K
Intuitive Surgical$18K
Baxter Healthcare$10K
Edwards Lifesciences$2K
Medtronic$2K
Stryker$1K
plus $3K from 22 others

$13,439in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 8 payments — averaging $1679.88 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.

Atricure, Inc.$13K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$231,08081%
Travel & lodging$25,7629%
Food & beverage$13,2715%
Education$16,6506%
Gifts$140%
Other$110%

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
Atricure, Inc.	300	$250,722
Intuitive Surgical	24	$18,448
Baxter Healthcare	12	$10,249
Edwards Lifesciences	16	$1,873
Medtronic(2 entities)	22	$1,792
Stryker	4	$1,123
Artivion, Inc.	24	$1,120
Abiomed	4	$205
Angiodynamics, Inc.	2	$177
Corcym Inc	5	$158
Johnson & Johnson(2 entities)	7	$132
Biosense Webster, Inc.	1	$117
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	2	$101
Conetic Solutions, Inc.	4	$77
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)	4	$65
Abbott	2	$55
Conmed Corporation	1	$50
Pinnacle Biologics, Inc	2	$47
Zimmer Biomet	2	$46
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.	1	$43
Verona Pharma, Inc.	2	$34
Harmony Biosciences LLC	1	$31
Scpharmaceuticals Inc.	2	$28
Grifols USA, LLC	1	$23
Teleflex LLC	1	$22
Kls-martin L.p.	1	$21
Boston Scientific	1	$14
Getinge USA Sales, LLC	1	$14

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.

EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$166,014
SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$55,753
ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$53,190
Da Vinci Surgical System$17,983
ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOSPHERE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM$17,627
EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYS$14,672
TISSEEL$9,545
ISOLATOR SURGICAL ABLATION SYSTEM$8,946
DISSECTOR$8,946
EVERA MRI XT DR SURESCAN$1,096
1788$977
INSPIRIS RESILIA aortic valve$735
ATRICURE CRYOICE CRYOABLATION SYSTEM (CRYO2)$555
SPY-PHI SYSTEM$301
ATRICURE ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION$271
ON-X AORTIC HEART VALVE WITH CONFORM-X SEWING RING AND EXTENDED HOLDER$209
HemoSphere$166
ARTISS$144
Micra$134
Carto 3 System$117

How this compares

$286,788 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 29 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Nebraska.

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

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$170,124

Medicare patients

179

Services billed

410

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
Methylprednisolone	12	$64

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Omaha

John BatterOmaha$29K
Kim DuncanOmaha$23K
David BerkheimOmaha$20K
John UmOmaha$16K
Karin TrujilloOmaha$16K
Anthony CastleberryOmaha$16K
Thomas LangdonOmaha$14K
Marian UrbanOmaha$10K
Jill NohlOmaha$9K
Rudy LacknerOmaha$8K

See the full list for Nebraska →

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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