Has Puja Kachroo, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $56,952 in general payments to Puja Kachroo, MD across 98 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 Puja Kachroo, 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 Puja Kachroo, 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.

Puja Kachroo, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Saint Louis, MONPI 1881899714

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by travel and lodging: $34,216 of the $56,952 with a category attached, or 60.1%. Edwards Lifesciences accounts for 75.3% of it on its own, with 5 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $32,969, 8.2 times the $3,998 reported in 2019. Among thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) clinicians in MO 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.

$56,952in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 98 payments — averaging $581.14 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Edwards Lifesciences$43K
Artivion, Inc.$9K
Medtronic$3K
Boston Scientific$1K
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$959
Zimmer Biomet$125

$353,039in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 52 payments — averaging $6789.21 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.

Bolton Medical Inc$120K
Edwards Lifesciences$108K
Artivion, Inc.$43K
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$41K
Quest Medical Inc.$32K
Medtronic$9K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$11,54020%
Speaking & faculty fees$5,1259%
Travel & lodging$34,21660%
Food & beverage$5,72310%
Education$3481%

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
Edwards Lifesciences	51	$42,889
Artivion, Inc.	24	$9,397
Medtronic	10	$2,502
Boston Scientific	5	$1,078
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	7	$959
Zimmer Biomet	1	$125

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.

Cardiac non-SynerGraft$6,413
CG Future$1,125
GENERAL - THERAPIES$969
GORE TAG Thoracic Branch Endoprosthesis$464
MITRIS RESILIA Mitral Valve$178
Product in Development$144
INSPIRIS RESILIA aortic valve$134
GORE TAG Conformable Thoracic Endoprosthesis$131
SternaLock Blu$125
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$125
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve$125
EVOQUE$119

How this compares

$56,952 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 113 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Missouri.

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

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$145,032

Medicare patients

Services billed

132

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
Mupirocin	30	$204
Chlorhexidine Gluconate	35	$101

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Saint Louis

Tsuyoshi KanekoSaint Louis$353K
Ralph DamianoSaint Louis$134K
Umraan AhmadSaint Louis$51K
Nabil MunfakhSaint Louis$44K
Shuddhadeb RaySaint Louis$38K
Joshua BakerSaint Louis$36K
Alexander BresciaSaint Louis$35K
Kunal Deepak KotkarSaint Louis$33K
George PattersonSaint Louis$23K
Muhammad MasoodSaint Louis$23K

See the full list for Missouri →

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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