Christopher Dewald, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Chicago, ILNPI 1952334948
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $1,016,376 of the $1,189,865 with a category attached, or 85.4%. Alphatec Spine, Inc accounts for 91.9% of it on its own, with 17 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $396,126, 9.9 times the $40,001 reported in 2019. Among orthopaedic surgery of the spine clinicians in IL 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 233 payments — averaging $5106.72 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Alphatec Spine, Inc$1.1M
- Smaio SA$88K
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$2K
- Zimmer Biomet$1K
- Globus Medical$1K
- Mirus, LLC$1K
- plus $3K from 12 others
Across 8 payments — averaging $5943.31 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.
- Si-bone, Inc.$48K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$1,016,37685%
- Consulting fees$124,92110%
- Travel & lodging$41,0893%
- Food & beverage$7,4801%
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 | 148 | $1,093,696 |
| Smaio SA | 23 | $88,283 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 10 | $1,894 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 4 | $1,210 |
| Globus Medical(2 entities) | 7 | $1,125 |
| Mirus, LLC | 2 | $1,027 |
| Zimvie Inc. | 5 | $667 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 13 | $526 |
| Si-bone, Inc. | 2 | $236 |
| Carlsmed, Inc. | 2 | $235 |
| Prosidyan, Inc | 1 | $200 |
| Stryker | 3 | $184 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 3 | $170 |
| Innovation Technologies Inc | 2 | $147 |
| Highridge Medical LLC | 1 | $103 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 5 | $83 |
| Woven Orthopedic Technologies, LLC | 1 | $52 |
| Heron Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $29 |
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.
- IdentiTi$800,178
- Other - Miscellaneous$317,930
- Invictus MIS$103,740
- OsseoScrew$103,471
- Solus ALIF$46,531
- INVICTUS OPEN$36,889
- ALIF$20,518
- KODIAK$13,941
- Other - Thoraco-Lumbar$13,941
- LIF$12,865
- DO NOT USE - ALIF$2,750
- MULTIPLE$1,844
- EXPEDIUM$1,695
- The Tether$1,645
- EUROPA Pedicle Screw System$1,027
- CYGNUS Anterior Cervical Plate$1,027
- IO Expandable Lumbar Interbody$1,027
- Excelsius - GPS$909
- ALPHA INFORMATIX$254
- BIOLOGICS$245
How this compares
$1,189,865 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 64 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Illinois.
See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Illinois →
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 orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Chicago
- Frank PhillipsChicago$3.9M
- Kern SinghChicago$1.3M
- Matthew ColmanChicago$334K
- Arash SayariChicago$174K
- Michael LeeChicago$107K
- Gregory LopezChicago$88K
- Howard AnChicago$82K
- Purnendu GuptaChicago$33K
- Karan PatelChicago$13K
- Neil MohileChicago$8K
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.