Brian Nickel, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Madison, WINPI 1588920227
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $130,950 of the $211,437 with a category attached, or 61.9%. Smith+Nephew accounts for 98.6% of it on its own, with 4 other manufacturers making up the rest. Among orthopaedic surgery clinicians in WI 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 238 payments — averaging $888.39 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Smith+Nephew$208K
- Stryker$3K
- Guard Medical Inc.$94
- Heraeus Medical, LLC.$43
- Cook Medical LLC$19
Across 22 payments — averaging $3514.40 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.
- Smith+Nephew$77K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$130,95062%
- Speaking & faculty fees$42,54420%
- Travel & lodging$27,34013%
- Food & beverage$10,6025%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Smith+Nephew | 195 | $208,384 |
| Stryker | 40 | $2,897 |
| Guard Medical Inc. | 1 | $94 |
| Heraeus Medical, LLC. | 1 | $43 |
| Cook Medical LLC | 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.
- Journey II$385,526
- REAL INTELLIGENCE$180,224
- K-15 PORK$70,932
- Legion$33,751
- Legion Revision$30,876
- Tandem$17,604
- PICO 7$11,288
- JOURNEY$9,675
- RI.HIP NAVIGATION$8,258
- POLARSTEM$7,972
- OR3O Dual Mobility$5,670
- PICO$3,888
- REDAPT$3,107
- MAKO$2,056
- POLARCUP$1,084
- Engage Partial Knee System$607
- VISIONAIRE$607
- AETOS Shoulder System$576
- HIP7$547
- Journey II XR$525
How this compares
$211,437 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 498 orthopaedic surgery providers in Wisconsin.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Amoxicillin | 38 | $59 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Madison
- Richard IllgenMadison$6.1M
- Clifford TribusMadison$1.4M
- Thomas ZdeblickMadison$1.1M
- Mitchell KuhlMadison$141K
- Kenneth NoonanMadison$100K
- Jeffrey HenstenburgMadison$61K
- Christopher DomesMadison$46K
- Sara GalliMadison$32K
- Andrew SheeanMadison$31K
- Robert ChurchillGrafton$7.7M
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.