Has Louis Brunsting, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $209,918 in general payments to Louis Brunsting, MD across 147 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 Louis Brunsting, 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 Louis Brunsting, 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.

Louis Brunsting, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Cincinnati, OHNPI 1356334692

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $184,639 of the $209,918 with a category attached, or 88.0%. Intuitive Surgical accounts for 94.7% of it on its own, with 12 other manufacturers making up the rest. Among thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) clinicians in OH 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.

$209,918in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 147 payments — averaging $1428.01 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Intuitive Surgical$199K
Atricure, Inc.$8K
Medtronic$1K
Abbott$791
Abiomed$435
Edwards Lifesciences$432
plus $719 from 7 others

$17,774in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 4 payments — averaging $4443.50 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.$18K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$184,63988%
Speaking & faculty fees$10,0005%
Travel & lodging$3,9782%
Food & beverage$6,3013%
Education$5,0002%

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	16	$198,814
Atricure, Inc.	71	$7,588
Medtronic(2 entities)	33	$1,139
Abbott	8	$791
Abiomed	4	$435
Edwards Lifesciences	5	$432
Livanova USA, Inc.	3	$209
Covidien LP	1	$135
Corcym Inc	2	$115
Angiodynamics, Inc.	1	$100
Haemonetics Corporation	1	$96
Irhythm Technologies, Inc.	1	$39
LSI Solutions Inc	1	$23

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$188,514
DA VINCI SP$10,300
EPI-SENSE GUIDED COAGULATION SYSTEM WITH VISITRAX$2,368
SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$1,507
Epic$302
ATRICLIP LAA EXCLUSION SYSTEM$292
Impella$279
ABSOLUTE PRO$204
Freestyle$159
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$158
Trifecta GT Tissue Heart Valve$155
Mosaic$151
SAPIEN 3 Ultra RESILIA$147
Avalus$110
AngioVac$100

How this compares

$209,918 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 245 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Ohio.

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

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$146,005

Medicare patients

101

Services billed

300

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
Potassium Chloride	16	$101
Furosemide	15	$22
Metoprolol Tartrate	12	$20

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Cincinnati

Robert AdamsCincinnati$321K
David MoralesCincinnati$163K
John SmithCincinnati$153K
Kathryn O'KeefeCincinnati$123K
Julian Guitron-RoigCincinnati$85K
Robert DowlingCincinnati$82K
Saad HasanCincinnati$35K
Carmen TugulanCincinnati$32K
Mohi MitiekCincinnati$25K
Cristiano SpadaccioCincinnati$21K

See the full list for Ohio →

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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