Joseph Buell, MD
Surgery · New Orleans, LANPI 1083682009
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (39.8%), consulting fees and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 32 manufacturers reported payments, led by Medical Device Business Services, Inc. at 39.5% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $93,244 and has fallen 96.3% since, to $3,414 in 2025. Among surgery clinicians in LA 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 320 payments — averaging $581.88 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$74K
- Davol Inc.$66K
- Covidien LP$18K
- Biom'up SA$7K
- Acell, Inc.$7K
- Intuitive Surgical$6K
- plus $10K from 26 others
Across 1 payment — averaging $26,083 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.
- Amgen$26K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$63,96034%
- Speaking & faculty fees$74,07940%
- Travel & lodging$38,24021%
- Food & beverage$9,9135%
- Gifts$90%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 49 | $73,610 |
| Davol Inc. | 87 | $65,606 |
| Covidien LP | 29 | $18,182 |
| Biom'up SA | 9 | $6,896 |
| Acell, Inc. | 9 | $6,538 |
| Intuitive Surgical | 20 | $5,699 |
| Medtronic | 21 | $3,584 |
| TELA Bio, Inc. | 13 | $2,076 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 27 | $1,476 |
| Kerecis Limited | 7 | $482 |
| C. R. Bard, Inc. & Subsidiaries | 2 | $395 |
| Dilon Technologies, Inc. | 2 | $237 |
| Bard Access Systems, Inc. | 2 | $188 |
| AbbVie | 7 | $165 |
| BD | 5 | $165 |
| Sirtex Medical Inc | 2 | $128 |
| Teleflex LLC | 1 | $103 |
| AstraZeneca | 4 | $87 |
| Angiodynamics, Inc. | 1 | $80 |
| Novartis | 3 | $78 |
| Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. | 3 | $69 |
| Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. | 3 | $59 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 3 | $51 |
| Alcresta Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $50 |
| Innovation Technologies Inc | 2 | $36 |
| Acera Surgical, Inc. | 2 | $34 |
| Intera Oncology, Inc | 1 | $28 |
| Eisai Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Tersera Therapeutics LLC | 1 | $23 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $20 |
| Recordati_rare_diseases_inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Vivus 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.
- ECHELON FLEX Stapler$13,837
- HARMONIC Product Family$12,731
- EVICEL Fibrin Sealant (Human)$12,487
- NEUWAVE Flex Microwave Ablation System$12,229
- EVARREST$10,594
- PHASIX$7,341
- HEMOBLAST$6,748
- CERTUS 140 MICROWAVE ABLATION SYSTEM$6,499
- Da Vinci Surgical System$5,449
- Phasix Mesh$2,495
- OviTex Reinforced Bioscaffold With Permanent Polymer (OviTex)$1,768
- ECHELON ENDOPATH Stapler$1,732
- Kerecis Omega3 Marigen$851
- Signia$792
- ECHELON ENDOPATH$358
- VISTASEAL$350
- Kerecis Omega3 SurgiClose$284
- Kerecis Omega3 GraftGuide$284
- Harmonic$239
- HemoBlast Bellows$237
How this compares
$186,201 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th 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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Sulfamethoxazole-TrimethoprimSulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim | 15 | $50 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other surgery in New Orleans
- Carlos GalvaniNew Orleans$352K
- Michael CookNew Orleans$84K
- Douglas SlakeyNew Orleans$81K
- Ian HodgdonNew Orleans$38K
- Shauna LevyNew Orleans$33K
- Adwoa Opoku-BoatengNew Orleans$30K
- Ari CohenNew Orleans$28K
- Mohamed-Aly BakeerNew Orleans$27K
- William KethmanNew Orleans$27K
- Jacquelyn TurnerNew Orleans$14K
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.