Has Thomas Merle, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $10,403 in general payments to Thomas Merle, MD across 56 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 Thomas Merle, 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 Thomas Merle, 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.

Thomas Merle, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Kettering, OHNPI 1730187469

Payments from drug & device makers

$10,403in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 56 payments — averaging $185.77 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Intuitive Surgical$8K
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.$2K
Medtronic$299
Abiomed$125
Cvrx, Inc.$124
Baxter Healthcare$123
plus $291 from 6 others

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$3,04229%
Food & beverage$1,86118%
Education$5,50053%

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	21	$7,822
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	9	$1,618
Medtronic	8	$299
Abiomed	1	$125
Cvrx, Inc.	1	$124
Baxter Healthcare	7	$123
Boston Scientific	3	$100
Haemonetics Corporation	1	$97
Atricure, Inc.	2	$38
Edwards Lifesciences	1	$31
Johnson & Johnson	1	$14
Biocompatibles, Inc.	1	$11

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.

How this compares

$10,403 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th 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

$155,697

Medicare patients

127

Services billed

323

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.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Kettering

Michael MorontToledo$2.4M
Kathryn O'KeefeCincinnati$1.3M
Edward SolteszCleveland$1.2M
Alan Marc GillinovCleveland$1M
Alejandro BribriescoCleveland$968K
Alan MarkowitzCleveland$951K
Andrew ManganaroWilmington$951K
Daniel WatsonColumbus$946K
Eric RoselliCleveland$933K
Eric OkumColumbus$640K

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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