Brent Ponce, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Charleston, SCNPI 1659358091
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $588,135 of the $873,876 with a category attached, or 67.3%. Stryker accounts for 67.9% of it on its own, with 18 other manufacturers making up the rest. Among orthopaedic surgery clinicians in SC 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 458 payments — averaging $1908.03 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Stryker$594K
- Smith+Nephew$243K
- Synthes GmbH$22K
- CGG Medical Inc$4K
- Prime Surgical, LLC$3K
- Fidia Pharma USA Inc.$3K
- plus $5K from 13 others
Across 15 payments — averaging $2987.61 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.
- Stryker$23K
- Smith+Nephew$17K
- Integra Lifesciences Corporation$5K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$588,13567%
- Consulting fees$216,71325%
- Speaking & faculty fees$16,1712%
- Travel & lodging$41,5255%
- Food & beverage$8,9431%
- Education$2,3510%
- Gifts$390%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stryker(2 entities) | 287 | $593,660 |
| Smith+Nephew | 77 | $242,969 |
| Synthes GmbH | 28 | $21,954 |
| CGG Medical Inc | 3 | $4,135 |
| Prime Surgical, LLC | 9 | $2,999 |
| Fidia Pharma USA Inc. | 2 | $2,862 |
| Shoulder Innovations, Inc. | 5 | $2,318 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 19 | $1,101 |
| Depuy Synthes Products, Inc. | 1 | $585 |
| Exactech, Inc. | 4 | $473 |
| Arthrex | 6 | $308 |
| Nanovis LLC | 2 | $184 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 4 | $143 |
| Peerless Surgical Inc. | 2 | $52 |
| Globus Medical | 2 | $41 |
| Illuminoss Medical, Inc. | 2 | $39 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 2 | $32 |
| Innovation Technologies Inc | 1 | $14 |
| Trimed, Inc. | 2 | $6 |
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.
- ORTHOLOC 3DI$305,976
- AETOS Shoulder System$210,125
- MAKO$111,786
- INFINITY$81,714
- SIMPLICITI$24,600
- BLUEPRINT PSI SYSTEM$17,569
- AEQUALIS$12,477
- ORTHOLOC$12,286
- REUNION$6,943
- Hymovis$2,862
- PERFORM GLENOID$2,400
- InSet System$2,278
- R&D EXTREMITIES$2,200
- TITAN-SHOULDER$1,625
- ARIA$1,444
- TRIATHLON$1,250
- AEQUALIS PERFORM REVERSED$590
- VISUALIZATION$585
- QUICKANCHORS$585
- BIOKNOTLESS$585
How this compares
$873,876 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 325 orthopaedic surgery providers in South Carolina.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Meloxicam | 571 | $1,686 |
| Methocarbamol | 141 | $1,116 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 163 | $890 |
| Sulfamethoxazole-TrimethoprimSulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim | 62 | $460 |
| Doxycycline Hyclate | 11 | $432 |
| Gabapentin | 104 | $405 |
| Mupirocin | 58 | $345 |
| Ondansetron Hcl | 100 | $202 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 13 | $199 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 19 | $140 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 31 | $97 |
| Cephalexin | 12 | $51 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Charleston
- Daniel ScottCharleston$70K
- Thomas MoranCharleston$56K
- Brian CashCharleston$44K
- Brandon RogalskiCharleston$20K
- Zeke WaltonCharleston$19K
- William SmithColumbia$7.7M
- Richard FrischMt Pleasant$1M
- Chi LimSpartanburg$320K
- Todd LansfordNorth Charleston$286K
- Nicholas GrimaldiColumbia$203K
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.