Has Vern Keller, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $492,879 in general payments to Vern Keller, MD across 1,083 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 Vern Keller, 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 Vern Keller, 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.

Vern Keller, MD

Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) · Lafayette, LANPI 1639176472

Payments from drug & device makers

$492,879in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 1,083 payments — averaging $455.11 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Medtronic$326K
Stryker$47K
Edwards Lifesciences$45K
Silk Road Medical, Inc.$17K
Zimmer Biomet$16K
Butterfly Network, Inc.$14K
plus $26K from 40 others

$63,000in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 5 payments — averaging $12,600 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.

Medtronic$63K

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$122,29931%
Speaking & faculty fees$135,26634%
Grants$1230%
Travel & lodging$50,03713%
Food & beverage$46,20912%
Education$22,6006%
Gifts$2,0941%
Other$15,2724%

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
Medtronic(2 entities)	568	$326,234
Stryker	51	$47,464
Edwards Lifesciences	103	$45,006
Silk Road Medical, Inc.	77	$17,348
Zimmer Biomet	32	$15,993
Butterfly Network, Inc.	1	$14,394
Eko Health, Inc.	4	$12,672
Atricure, Inc.	55	$6,157
Shockwave Medical, Inc	40	$1,355
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.	15	$1,165
Boston Scientific	24	$1,116
Abiomed	24	$997
Terumo Cardiovascular Systems Corporation	3	$379
Johnson & Johnson(4 entities)	17	$313
Livanova USA, Inc.	7	$304
Covidien LP	4	$209
Amgen	9	$156
Terumo Medical Corporation	1	$146
Artivion, Inc.	6	$136
Kestra Medical Technology Services, Inc.	1	$116
Kerecis Limited	1	$111
Philips North America LLC	2	$99
Intuitive Surgical	2	$95
Endologix LLC	1	$91
Penumbra, Inc.	1	$86
Chiesi USA, Inc.	5	$85
Cardiovascular Systems Inc.	1	$84
Bolton Medical Inc	2	$82
Merck	3	$59
Cvrx, Inc.	2	$55
Kls-martin L.p.	3	$41
La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company	2	$40
Baxter Healthcare	2	$33
ALON Medical Technology	1	$32
Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC	1	$30
Sanara Medtech Inc.	2	$29
Davol Inc.	1	$24
BD	1	$23
Haemonetics Corporation	1	$19
Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc.	1	$17
LSI Solutions Inc	1	$17
Smith+Nephew	1	$16
Elutia, Inc.	1	$16
Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	1	$15
Lundbeck LLC	1	$11
ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp)	1	$9

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.

COREVALVE EVOLUT R$92,137
CoreValve Evolut$89,007
ENROUTE Transcarotid Neuroprotection System$31,288
Edwards SAPIEN 3 Transcatheter Heart Valve$18,249
DALL-MILES$16,505
ENROUTE Transcarotid Stent$15,934
ENROUTE Enflate Transcarotid RX Balloon Dilatation Catheter$15,251
COLORADO NEEDLE$14,888
Butterfly iQ$14,394
SternaLock Blu$9,182
CMF & Thoracic Product Portfolio$6,000
NA$4,664
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT$3,696
Avalus$2,934
SYNERGY ABLATION SYSTEM$2,507
Mosaic$2,140
Octopus$2,059
SternaLock 360$2,000
MEDPOR$1,781
Shockwave IVL System with the Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL Catheter$721

How this compares

$492,879 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 75 thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) providers in Louisiana.

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

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$201,424

Medicare patients

253

Services billed

523

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	35	$262

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other thoracic surgery (cardiothoracic vascular surgery) in Lafayette

David AllieLafayette$666K
Safi HaqLafayette$28K
Mohamad AllamLafayette$6K
Mitchell LirtzmanLafayette$2K
Richard GitterMetairie$1.5M
Emily CassidyBaton Rouge$1.3M
Aditya BansalNew Orleans$668K
Patrick ParrinoNew Orleans$184K
Daniel BecklesLake Charles$80K
Nicholas LeblancBaton Rouge$70K

See the full list for Louisiana →

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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