Christopher Brown, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Plantation, FLNPI 1598728628
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $1,623 of the $2,328 with a category attached, or 69.7%. 13 manufacturers reported payments, led by Alphatec Spine, Inc at 50.8% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $898 and has fallen 91.6% since, to $75 in 2025. That places this record below the midpoint for orthopaedic surgery of the spine clinicians in FL, where the typical reported total is $16,334.
Across 52 payments — averaging $44.77 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Alphatec Spine, Inc$1K
- Amgen$409
- BD$201
- Verity Pharmaceuticals Inc.$191
- Biotronik Inc.$133
- Vertex$59
- plus $152 from 7 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$67529%
- Food & beverage$1,62370%
- Education$301%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alphatec Spine, Inc | 2 | $1,182 |
| Amgen(2 entities) | 26 | $409 |
| BD | 3 | $201 |
| Verity Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 9 | $191 |
| Biotronik Inc. | 2 | $133 |
| Vertex | 2 | $59 |
| Surgalign Spine Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $44 |
| Bioventus LLC | 2 | $28 |
| Abbott | 1 | $21 |
| Globus Medical | 1 | $17 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $15 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $14 |
| Bausch & Lomb Americas Inc. | 1 | $14 |
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.
- SafeOp$675
- Pulsar$103
- PRO-Kinetic Energy$103
- Orsiro$103
- Astron; Pulsar; AstronPulsar$103
- PK Papyrus$103
How this compares
$2,328 in reported general payments places this provider in the 20th percentile of 159 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Florida.
See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Florida →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Celecoxib | 11 | $429 |
| Methylprednisolone | 61 | $385 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 81 | $379 |
| Meloxicam | 92 | $266 |
| Gabapentin | 12 | $156 |
| Cyclobenzaprine Hcl | 27 | $132 |
| Ibuprofen | 18 | $125 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 11 | $118 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Plantation
- Jahangir AsgharPlantation$1M
- Harry ShufflebargerMiami$3.5M
- Paul KellerMelbourne$3.4M
- Thomas SweeneySarasota$2.3M
- Geoffrey CronenTampa$2.2M
- James BillysOdessa$1.9M
- Mark DekutoskiDestin$1.8M
- Farhan SiddiqiOdessa$1.7M
- Samuel JosephSafety Harbor$1.7M
- Thomas ErricoMiami$1.6M
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.