Has Christopher Kepler, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $31,412 in general payments to Christopher Kepler, MD across 37 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Christopher Kepler, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Christopher Kepler, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Christopher Kepler, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery · Philadelphia, PANPI 1114184389

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

The money is spread across several categories — royalties or licence payments (57.5%), charitable contributions and food and beverage — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 17 manufacturers reported payments, led by Curiteva, Inc. at 59.3% of the total. 2025 is the largest year on record at $18,075, more than ten times the $428 reported in 2019.

$31,412in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 37 payments — averaging $848.97 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Curiteva, Inc.$19K
Pioneer Surgical Technology, Inc.$8K
RTI Surgical, Inc$2K
Zimmer Biomet$944
Stryker$576
Globus Medical$565
plus $1K from 11 others

$50,447in research payments, 2019–2025

Across 17 payments — averaging $2967.49 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.

Surgalign Spine Technologies, Inc.$35K
Pfizer$15K

What the payments were for

Royalty or licence$18,07558%
Travel & lodging$1,3324%
Food & beverage$2,6859%
Charitable contribution$9,32030%

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
Curiteva, Inc.	2	$18,629
Pioneer Surgical Technology, Inc.	2	$7,701
RTI Surgical, Inc	1	$1,619
Zimmer Biomet	7	$944
Stryker	11	$576
Globus Medical	2	$565
The Institute Of Musculoskeletal Science And Education	1	$527
Icotec Medical Inc.	1	$153
Highridge Medical LLC	1	$136
Seaspine Orthopedics Corporation	1	$116
Johnson & Johnson	2	$105
Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc	1	$96
Carbofix Spine Inc	1	$93
Surgalign Spine Technologies, Inc.	1	$72
Liberty Surgical Inc.	1	$33
Bioventus LLC	1	$22
Heraeus Medical, LLC.	1	$21

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.

Forte$7,701
FORTILINK$1,619
Lapidus Plate$761
Orthros$527
ExcelsiusGPS Robotic Navigation System$437
EVEREST SPINAL SYSTEM$170
icotec BlackArmor Spine System$153
MOBI-C PLUG & FIT US$136
Excelsius - GPS$128
Cambria NanoMetalene$116
NONE$111

How this compares

$31,412 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 1,048 orthopaedic surgery providers in Pennsylvania.

See all orthopaedic surgery providers in Pennsylvania →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$586,510

Medicare patients

565

Services billed

2,208

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
Gabapentin	124	$1,607
Methylprednisolone	169	$947
Tizanidine Hcl	64	$537
Cyclobenzaprine Hcl	37	$311
Celecoxib	14	$244
Naproxen	32	$206
Baclofen	21	$128
Meloxicam	12	$125
Cephalexin	17	$118
Prednisone	17	$48

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery in Philadelphia

John FenlinPhiladelphia$5.9M
Alexander VaccaroPhiladelphia$4.5M
Joseph AbboudPhiladelphia$3.9M
Samir MehtaPhiladelphia$3.6M
Surena NamdariPhiladelphia$1.8M
Neil ShethPhiladelphia$522K
Amrit KhalsaPhiladelphia$475K
Vahid EntezariPhiladelphia$393K
Charles NelsonPhiladelphia$345K
David GlaserPhiladelphia$176K

See the full list for Pennsylvania →

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.

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