Who Paid My Doc
Vern Keller
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) Lafayette, LA Medical Doctor
NPI 1639176472 CMS profile 209719
155 Hospital Dr Ste 201, Ste 201, Lafayette, LA 70503
General payments
$393,900
Research payments
$63,000
Ownership & investment interest
$0
Research they led as principal investigator
$98,979
Through program year 2025, Vern Keller of Lafayette, LA is reported in the CMS Open Payments database as having received $393,900 across 1,079 general payments and $63,000 in research payments paid to them. Separately, studies naming them as principal investigator received $98,979 in research payments, paid to institutions rather than to them.
No combined total General, research and ownership are kept apart. Each is reported under its own rules, and ownership is not money that moved at all but the value of a stake held. A meal, a clinical trial grant and a shareholding do not add up to anything meaningful, so this site does not add them. The principal-investigator line is research money paid to institutions for studies they led — not to them — and is not added to anything either.
General payments for this record sit in the 98th percentile of Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) profiles with reported payments. Percentile describes the distribution, not the conduct.
By program year
10 rows| Year | Kind | Relative to this record's peak year | Amount | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | General | $67,466 | 139 | |
| 2024 | General | $40,370 | 148 | |
| 2024 | Research | $23,152 | 2 | |
| 2023 | General | $40,631 | 112 | |
| 2023 | Research | $26,565 | 2 | |
| 2022 | General | $59,660 | 158 | |
| 2022 | Research | $13,283 | 1 | |
| 2021 | General | $71,842 | 150 | |
| 2020 | General | $66,785 | 158 | |
| 2019 | General | $47,147 | 214 |
Beside peers
- Vern Keller
- Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) median
- Middle half of Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery)
- National median
In program year 2025, general payments to Vern Keller were reported at $67,466. Among 4,073 Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) profiles paid that year, the median was $791 and the middle half received between $208 and $3,074.
Show as a table
| Year | Vern Keller | Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) median | Middle half | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | $47,147 | $886 | $178–$3,167 | $163 |
| 2020 | $66,785 | $341 | $108–$1,605 | $114 |
| 2021 | $71,842 | $453 | $125–$1,886 | $132 |
| 2022 | $59,660 | $695 | $180–$2,566 | $149 |
| 2023 | $40,631 | $745 | $205–$2,662 | $160 |
| 2024 | $40,370 | $799 | $214–$2,967 | $164 |
| 2025 | $67,466 | $791 | $208–$3,074 | $169 |
Breakdown
A payment can name more than one product, so these amounts overlap and do not add up to the general-payment figure.
Prescribing to Medicare patients
Part D · data year 2024 · 1 drugPart D claims
35
Drug cost
$262
Branded share of claims
0%
| Drug | Type | Relative to their largest | Claims | Drug cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mupirocin | Generic | 35 | $262 |
Drug cost is what was paid for the drugs at the pharmacy — by Medicare, the patient and others — and is not money to the prescriber. Medicare Part D only: drugs dispensed to Medicare beneficiaries. A drug with fewer than 11 claims for this prescriber is not published, so a missing drug does not mean zero. The medians are for the 910 Part D prescribers listed as Thoracic Surgery; they describe a distribution and say nothing about conduct.
Billing to Medicare
Part B · data year 2024 · 61 billing codesPaid by Medicare
$159,043
Medicare patients
253
Services billed
523
| Condition among their Medicare patients | Relative to the most common | Share of patients |
|---|---|---|
| High blood pressure | 75% | |
| Ischemic heart disease | 75% | |
| Diabetes | 54% | |
| Arthritis | 49% | |
| Heart failure | 42% | |
| Atrial fibrillation | 38% | |
| Chronic kidney disease | 38% | |
| Depression | 28% |
Medicare Part B only: services billed to Medicare. Rows covering fewer than 11 beneficiaries are not published. Only drugs given in the clinic are itemised here; the rest of what this provider billed is in the total above.
Payments and prescribing
1 product · payments 2024Two separate records. The payments come from Open Payments and the claims from Medicare. They are set side by side because they name the same product; they do not show that a payment affected a prescription.
| Product | Paid by | Related payments | Part D claims | Part B services |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XARELTO |
|
$30 | — | — |
A dash means Medicare published no figure for this doctor and product — fewer than 11 claims, or the product is not covered under that part — which is not the same as none. Payments are general payments only; one that names several products is split evenly between them, so an amount is payments related to the product, not money paid for it.
Records
1,084 reportedEvery payment, record by record
Date, company, amount, what it was for and the product named — filter by year, kind and company, or download as CSV.
Related records
Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) in Louisiana
Practitioners in the same specialty and state, ranked by reported value.
All Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery)
Everyone recorded under this specialty, nationwide.
Doctors in Louisiana
Every practitioner in the state with a reported payment.
How to read this page
What each amount means, and what it does not mean.
What this means
U.S. law requires drug and medical device manufacturers to report payments and transfers of value they make to physicians and teaching hospitals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes that record each year. This page shows what was reported about this person, and nothing else.
An ownership interest is different from the other two. It is not a payment: it is a stake — shares, options, a partnership holding — that a physician or an immediate family member held in a manufacturer during that year. The figure shown is what the stake was reported to be worth.
Research payments frequently pass through a clinician to the institution running a trial, and rarely represent personal income. They should be read differently from general payments.