Richard Ballard, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Ruston, LANPI 1073583613
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 17 payments — averaging $17.89 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Smith+Nephew$62
- Bioventus LLC$58
- Pacira Therapeutics, Inc.$57
- Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC$51
- Johnson & Johnson$25
- Organogenesis Inc.$19
- plus $32 from 2 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$304100%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Smith+Nephew | 3 | $62 |
| Bioventus LLC | 3 | $58 |
| Pacira Therapeutics, Inc. | 4 | $57 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 3 | $51 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $25 |
| Organogenesis Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $15 |
How this compares
$304 in reported general payments places this provider in the 15th percentile of 286 orthopaedic 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Diclofenac Sodium | 175 | $2,145 |
| Celecoxib | 65 | $1,428 |
| Prednisone | 155 | $1,374 |
| Methocarbamol | 83 | $832 |
| Naproxen | 100 | $822 |
| Cyclobenzaprine Hcl | 122 | $573 |
| Tizanidine Hcl | 69 | $530 |
| Ketorolac Tromethamine | 25 | $462 |
| Ibuprofen | 26 | $242 |
| Gabapentin | 22 | $179 |
| Meloxicam | 42 | $147 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Ruston
- Pierce NunleyShreveport$3.8M
- Christopher HarrodBaton Rouge$3.1M
- Vinod DasaKenner$1.9M
- Jorge IsazaBaton Rouge$1.2M
- Robert ZuraNew Orleans$792K
- Kevin McCarthyBaton Rouge$714K
- Fernando SanchezNew Orleans$655K
- Neil MakiThibodaux$620K
- Timmothy RandellAlexandria$498K
- Robert EastonBaton Rouge$394K
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.