Blake Welling, MD
Neurological Surgery · Ogden, UTNPI 1710151980
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by travel and lodging: $4,143 of the $5,282 with a category attached, or 78.4%. Nexxt Spine LLC accounts for 69.9% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $3,657 and has fallen 91.8% since, to $299 in 2025.
Across 36 payments — averaging $146.71 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Nexxt Spine LLC$4K
- Medtronic$1K
- Centinel Spine, LLC$209
- Johnson & Johnson$70
- Cerapedics Inc.$39
- Globus Medical$25
- plus $61 from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$4,14378%
- Food & beverage$98719%
- Entertainment$1513%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nexxt Spine LLC | 18 | $3,692 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 9 | $1,186 |
| Centinel Spine, LLC | 1 | $209 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 3 | $70 |
| Cerapedics Inc. | 1 | $39 |
| Globus Medical | 1 | $25 |
| Abbott | 1 | $25 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 1 | $21 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $15 |
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.
- Nexxt Spine Product Offerings$3,250
- MazorX - Renaissance$1,049
- PRODISC L$209
How this compares
$5,282 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th percentile of 75 neurological surgery providers in Utah.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Methocarbamol | 57 | $992 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 15 | $130 |
| Diazepam | 26 | $84 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 12 | $68 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other neurological surgery in Ogden
- Jeffrey AucoinOgden$10K
- Kurt BangerterOgden$8K
- Dennis WintersOgden$2K
- Bryson SmithOgden$1K
- Mark MahanSalt Lake City$698K
- Ramesh GrandhiSalt Lake City$586K
- Howard ReichmanProvo$451K
- Marion WalkerSlc$381K
- Kenneth YonemuraSalt Lake City$117K
- Ian DorwardProvo$104K
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.