Craig Kuhns, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Austin, TXNPI 1922038108
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $2,157,339 of the $2,395,059 with a category attached, or 90.1%. Alphatec Spine, Inc accounts for 90.8% of it on its own, with 26 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $624,398, 8.1 times the $76,710 reported in 2019. Among orthopaedic surgery of the spine clinicians in TX 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 507 payments — averaging $4723.98 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Alphatec Spine, Inc$2.2M
- Globus Medical$123K
- Spineology Inc.$36K
- Medtronic$36K
- Spineart USA Inc$6K
- Surgalign Spine Technologies, Inc.$6K
- plus $13K from 21 others
Across 29 payments — averaging $8823.84 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.
- Spineart SA$146K
- Spineology Inc.$72K
- Si-bone, Inc.$27K
- Spineart USA Inc$12K
Across 18 payments — averaging $5960.19 each. An ownership or investment interest held by the physician or an immediate family member.
- Amplify Surgical, Inc.$107K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$2,157,33990%
- Consulting fees$166,7567%
- Speaking & faculty fees$4,7880%
- Travel & lodging$47,3632%
- Food & beverage$17,5491%
- Education$1,2650%
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 | 155 | $2,174,129 |
| Globus Medical(2 entities) | 104 | $123,377 |
| Spineology Inc. | 8 | $36,337 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 63 | $35,975 |
| Spineart USA Inc | 17 | $6,276 |
| Surgalign Spine Technologies, Inc. | 1 | $5,878 |
| Si-bone, Inc. | 77 | $3,720 |
| Cerapedics Inc. | 10 | $3,019 |
| Stryker | 30 | $1,741 |
| Arthrex | 3 | $1,548 |
| Medinc Of Texas | 7 | $725 |
| Acuity Surgical Devices, LLC | 1 | $579 |
| Providence Medical Technology, Inc. | 5 | $342 |
| Abbott | 5 | $287 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 8 | $255 |
| Abyrx, Inc | 1 | $213 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 2 | $159 |
| Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc | 1 | $112 |
| Xtant Medical Inc | 1 | $107 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $87 |
| Carlsmed, Inc. | 1 | $62 |
| Seaspine Orthopedics Corporation | 1 | $30 |
| Centinel Spine, LLC | 1 | $26 |
| Core Surgical Group | 1 | $26 |
| Olympus America Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Misonix Inc | 1 | $16 |
| Relievant Medsystems, Inc. | 1 | $13 |
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.
- INVICTUS OPEN$2,031,369
- Other - Miscellaneous$246,721
- INVICTUS VISE$137,445
- RELINE$94,297
- Rampart Duo Interbody Fusion System$36,310
- Invictus MIS$19,552
- KODIAK$11,375
- TLIF$10,460
- I-FACTOR PEPTIDE ENHANCED BONE GRAFT$8,645
- CLARITY RETRACTOR SYSTEM-LATERAL$5,878
- Scarlet AL-T$5,233
- Arsenal Deformity$3,750
- STEALTHSTATION S8 PLATFORM$1,313
- ANTERALIGN SPINAL SYSTEM WITH TITAN NANOLOCK SURFACE TECHNOLOGY$928
- Pulse$821
- Battalion TLIF - PC$557
- OsseoScrew$475
- UNID_PASS$451
- iFuse Implant$353
- IdentiTi$317
How this compares
$2,395,059 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 207 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Texas.
See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Texas →
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 | 57 | $439 |
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 36 | $422 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 18 | $143 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Austin
- Randall DryerAustin$2.9M
- Richard WuppermanAustin$808K
- Matthew GeckAustin$87K
- Jason ToyAustin$73K
- David WimberleyHouston$2.2M
- Jeffrey PhelpsNorth Richland Hills$1.9M
- Eric WieserArlington$1.5M
- Andrew ClavennaDallas$1.3M
- Ivan ChengKyle$1.2M
- Stephen TolhurstFlower Mound$1.1M
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.