Chad Cole, MD
Neurological Surgery · Albuquerque, NMNPI 1386832970
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $86,328 of the $100,785 with a category attached, or 85.7%. Stryker accounts for 86.8% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Among neurological surgery clinicians in NM 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 56 payments — averaging $1799.73 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Stryker$88K
- VB Spine LLC$10K
- Alphatec Spine, Inc$3K
- Johnson & Johnson$140
- DJO, LLC$93
- Highridge Medical LLC$73
- plus $118 from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$86,32886%
- Consulting fees$8,4508%
- Travel & lodging$3,9884%
- Food & beverage$2,0182%
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 | 37 | $87,525 |
| VB Spine LLC | 1 | $10,000 |
| Alphatec Spine, Inc | 9 | $2,836 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 2 | $140 |
| DJO, LLC | 2 | $93 |
| Highridge Medical LLC | 1 | $73 |
| Medtronic | 2 | $60 |
| Irras USA, Inc. | 1 | $43 |
| Upsher-smith Laboratories LLC | 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.
- MESA SPINAL SYSTEM$40,376
- CORTICAL SCREW$26,000
- CASCADIA INTERBODY SYSTEM$10,117
- CANYON RETRACTOR SYSTEMS$10,000
- AIRO$8,561
- SPINEMAP$8,450
- Other - Miscellaneous$2,761
- EVEREST SPINAL SYSTEM$958
- CORE$803
- N/A$351
- ALEUTIAN INTERBODY SYSTEMS$153
- DENALI SPINAL SYSTEM$117
- EMBOTRAP II Revascularization Device$116
How this compares
$100,785 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 32 neurological surgery providers in New Mexico.
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.
Other neurological surgery in Albuquerque
- Robert StarlingAlbuquerque$13K
- Christian RicksAlbuquerque$12K
- Michael KoganAlbuquerque$10K
- Peter ShinAlbuquerque$8K
- Ross GreenAlbuquerque$6K
- Mark ErasmusAlbuquerque$5K
- Mark BryniarskiAlbuquerque$4K
- Michael Ortiz TorresAlbuquerque$4K
- Carlos AlvarezAlbuquerque$4K
- James BotrosAlbuquerque$3K
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.