James Belue, MD
Family Medicine · Ruston, LANPI 1871520023
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 106 payments — averaging $18.35 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- AstraZeneca$550
- Lilly USA, LLC$288
- AbbVie$230
- Alkermes, Inc.$118
- Johnson & Johnson$99
- Astellas Pharma US Inc$70
- plus $590 from 22 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$1,945100%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| AstraZeneca | 27 | $550 |
| Lilly USA, LLC | 15 | $288 |
| AbbVie | 12 | $230 |
| Alkermes, Inc. | 2 | $118 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 6 | $99 |
| Astellas Pharma US Inc | 5 | $70 |
| GSK | 3 | $48 |
| Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC | 3 | $42 |
| Abbott | 2 | $41 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 3 | $39 |
| Amarin Pharma, Inc. | 3 | $38 |
| Tris Pharma Inc | 2 | $33 |
| Novo Nordisk | 2 | $33 |
| Exact Sciences | 2 | $33 |
| Pfizer | 2 | $31 |
| Sanofi Pasteur Inc. | 2 | $29 |
| Novartis | 1 | $27 |
| Merck | 2 | $27 |
| Bayer | 1 | $21 |
| Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 3 | $21 |
| Nestle Healthcare Nutrition Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Vertex | 1 | $17 |
| Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. | 1 | $16 |
| Phadia US Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Amgen | 1 | $15 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 1 | $13 |
| Vertical Pharmaceuticals, LLC | 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.
- ARISTADA$417
- BREZTRI$125
- ARISTADA INITIO$104
How this compares
$1,945 in reported general payments places this provider in the 65th percentile of 1,469 family medicine 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Albuterol Sulfate HfaAlbuterol Sulfate | 15 | $373 |
| Pantoprazole Sodium | 27 | $270 |
| Pioglitazone Hcl | 16 | $254 |
| Glipizide | 30 | $243 |
| Omeprazole | 20 | $209 |
| Trazodone Hcl | 23 | $127 |
| Metoprolol Succinate | 19 | $125 |
| Atorvastatin Calcium | 32 | $124 |
| Leflunomide | 11 | $119 |
| Losartan Potassium | 25 | $93 |
| Levothyroxine Sodium | 16 | $85 |
| Losartan-HydrochlorothiazideLosartan/Hydrochlorothiazide | 15 | $83 |
| Metformin Hcl | 29 | $81 |
| Azithromycin | 26 | $81 |
| Amlodipine Besylate | 36 | $75 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other family medicine in Ruston
- William SandersRuston$16K
- Michael PhillipsRuston$16K
- Clinton GuilloryMonroe$18.5M
- Jason MorrisLake Charles$18M
- Michael SeepLake Charles$9.1M
- William NaboursLake Charles$3M
- Ramon VargasKenner$2.1M
- Stephen JonesNew Orleans$513K
- Joshua WhatleyLake Charles$366K
- Richard JeansonneMandeville$362K
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.