Alexander Ropper, MD
Neurological Surgery · Houston, TXNPI 1497998264
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (42.4%), consulting fees and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 20 manufacturers reported payments, led by Globus Medical at 55.0% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $64,915 and has fallen 59.2% since, to $26,458 in 2025. Among neurological surgery clinicians in TX with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 5% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 272 payments — averaging $765.64 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Globus Medical$114K
- Stryker$70K
- Providence Medical Technology, Inc.$9K
- VB Spine LLC$5K
- Medtronic$4K
- Alphatec Spine, Inc$3K
- plus $3K from 14 others
Across 23 payments — averaging $3771.97 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.
- Providence Medical Technology, Inc.$74K
- Pfizer$12K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$84,70041%
- Speaking & faculty fees$88,32042%
- Travel & lodging$23,94511%
- Food & beverage$11,2385%
- Entertainment$520%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Globus Medical(2 entities) | 98 | $114,450 |
| Stryker | 78 | $69,736 |
| Providence Medical Technology, Inc. | 13 | $9,164 |
| VB Spine LLC | 2 | $5,288 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 39 | $4,264 |
| Alphatec Spine, Inc | 10 | $2,530 |
| Si-bone, Inc. | 8 | $521 |
| Nevro Corp. | 4 | $412 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 5 | $337 |
| Carlsmed, Inc. | 3 | $268 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 2 | $262 |
| Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc. | 1 | $241 |
| Spinal Simplicity, LLC | 2 | $204 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 1 | $143 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $142 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 1 | $111 |
| Abbott | 1 | $82 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $53 |
| Centinel Spine, LLC | 1 | $28 |
| Wound Management Technologies, Inc | 1 | $19 |
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.
- ELSA ATP$29,145
- RAVINE LATERAL ACCESS SYSTEM$26,325
- ELSA$20,026
- CASCADIA INTERBODY SYSTEM$17,469
- Quartex$16,551
- LATERAL ACCESS SPINAL SYSTEM$14,000
- NIAGARA LATERAL ACCESS SYSTEM$12,457
- RISE-L$12,014
- Anterior to Psoas$10,400
- ELSA, ELSA AL/ATP$9,216
- CORBEL$7,916
- CAYMAN PLATE SYSTEM$7,150
- CASCADIA$5,340
- NAPA ACCESS SYSTEM$5,250
- CALIBER$3,743
- EVEREST SPINAL SYSTEM$3,015
- ES2$2,800
- ALEUTIAN TLIF MI$2,800
- ARIA$2,800
- SPACE-D SYSTEM 5.5/6.0 VOYAGER INSTRUMENT SET$2,320
How this compares
$208,255 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 582 neurological surgery providers in Texas.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 102 | $798 |
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 34 | $172 |
| Gabapentin | 22 | $129 |
| Acetaminophen-CodeineAcetaminophen With Codeine | 11 | $50 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other neurological surgery in Houston
- Andrew RoeserHouston$660K
- Paul HolmanHouston$516K
- Taylor GistHouston$447K
- Meng HuangHouston$324K
- Laurence RhinesHouston$322K
- Omar TanweerHouston$254K
- Jeremy WangHouston$231K
- Fangyi ZhangHouston$192K
- Ashwin ViswanathanHouston$185K
- Blake StaubHouston$171K
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.