Christopher Heck, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Hoover, ALNPI 1245315308
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $102,900 of the $166,404 with a category attached, or 61.8%. Alphatec Spine, Inc accounts for 77.2% of it on its own, with 34 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $47,412 and has fallen 85.0% since, to $7,100 in 2025. Among orthopaedic surgery clinicians in AL 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 469 payments — averaging $354.81 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Alphatec Spine, Inc$128K
- Globus Medical$23K
- Boston Scientific$2K
- Heron Therapeutics, Inc.$2K
- Life Spine, Inc.$2K
- Providence Medical Technology, Inc.$1K
- plus $8K from 29 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$102,90062%
- Travel & lodging$40,66124%
- Food & beverage$22,74614%
- Entertainment$970%
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 | 114 | $128,440 |
| Globus Medical(2 entities) | 82 | $22,845 |
| Boston Scientific | 128 | $2,295 |
| Heron Therapeutics, Inc. | 3 | $2,136 |
| Life Spine, Inc. | 15 | $1,686 |
| Providence Medical Technology, Inc. | 17 | $1,434 |
| Carlsmed, Inc. | 11 | $1,244 |
| Curiteva, Inc. | 1 | $881 |
| Si-bone, Inc. | 15 | $755 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 5 | $550 |
| Amgen | 12 | $513 |
| Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc. | 1 | $497 |
| Johnson & Johnson(2 entities) | 9 | $496 |
| MML US, Inc. | 4 | $480 |
| Radius Health, Inc. | 14 | $418 |
| Integra Lifesciences Corporation | 3 | $209 |
| Foundation Fusion Solutions, LLC | 3 | $197 |
| Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc | 1 | $186 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 6 | $145 |
| Bioventus LLC | 2 | $143 |
| Spineology Inc. | 2 | $138 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 1 | $131 |
| Spinal Elements, Inc. | 4 | $118 |
| Nevro Corp. | 2 | $104 |
| Elutia, Inc. | 1 | $82 |
| Stryker | 1 | $63 |
| Pacira Therapeutics, Inc. | 3 | $58 |
| Kerecis Limited | 2 | $36 |
| Kyowa Kirin, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Conmed Corporation | 1 | $21 |
| Saluda Medical Americas, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $16 |
| Augmedics Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 1 | $11 |
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.
- Other - Miscellaneous$106,403
- XLIF$13,820
- LTP$13,375
- SafeOp$11,750
- ALIF$9,853
- Solus ALIF$8,104
- LIF$4,711
- Pulse$3,185
- HTX-011$2,122
- Spine$1,264
- TruLift$1,155
- aprevo$958
- ProLift Wedge$888
- ProLift Lateral Helo$888
- RISE-L$822
- Excelsius Robotics System$738
- Excelsius - GPS$734
- WaveWriter Alpha Prime 16$654
- FLOSEAL$550
- SPECTRA WAVEWRITER$502
How this compares
$166,404 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 319 orthopaedic surgery providers in Alabama.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 119 | $866 |
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 121 | $843 |
| Methylprednisolone | 26 | $265 |
| Methocarbamol | 20 | $127 |
| Naproxen | 20 | $127 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 22 | $54 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Hoover
- Dewey JonesHoover$17K
- Jeffrey DugasBirmingham$11.5M
- Benton EmblomBirmingham$3M
- Herrick SiegelBirmingham$1.2M
- Paul CanaleDaphne$609K
- Kenneth MooreBirmingham$342K
- Joseph SherrillBirmingham$221K
- Jonathan QuadeBirmingham$217K
- Lawrence LemakVestavia$216K
- Ginger BryantBirmingham$209K
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.