Saul Morales Valero, MD
Neurological Surgery · Lafayette, LANPI 1053796201
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by travel and lodging: $6,461 of the $9,115 with a category attached, or 70.9%. 13 manufacturers reported payments, led by Alphatec Spine, Inc at 30.2% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $4,365 and has fallen 89.3% since, to $467 in 2025.
Across 77 payments — averaging $118.38 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Alphatec Spine, Inc$3K
- Medtronic$3K
- Centinel Spine, LLC$2K
- Globus Medical$1K
- Stryker$192
- Abbott$163
- plus $516 from 7 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$6,46171%
- Food & beverage$2,65429%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alphatec Spine, Inc | 8 | $2,751 |
| Medtronic | 44 | $2,603 |
| Centinel Spine, LLC | 5 | $1,791 |
| Globus Medical(2 entities) | 8 | $1,101 |
| Stryker | 4 | $192 |
| Abbott | 1 | $163 |
| Spine Wave, Inc. | 1 | $123 |
| Providence Medical Technology, Inc. | 1 | $109 |
| Penumbra, Inc. | 1 | $99 |
| Caris MPI, Inc. | 1 | $83 |
| Brainlab, Inc. | 1 | $51 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 1 | $27 |
| Novocure 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.
- Other - Miscellaneous$1,974
- PRODISC C VIVO$1,614
- MAZOR X SYSTEM$1,526
- XLIF$855
- ETERNA$163
- PRODISC L$130
- SPINAL IMPLANT$123
How this compares
$9,115 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th percentile of 116 neurological 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gabapentin | 46 | $554 |
| Cyclobenzaprine Hcl | 18 | $129 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other neurological surgery in Lafayette
- Jason CormierLafayette$178K
- Jayme TrahanLafayette$68K
- Ahmad ElakilLafayette$12K
- Alan AppleyLafayette$8K
- Todd FountainLafayette$6K
- Ilyas MunshiLafayette$5K
- Anthony SinShreveport$1.5M
- Sebastian KogaHammond$720K
- Eric OberlanderBaton Rouge$660K
- Najeeb ThomasMetairie$440K
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.