Earl Frantz, DO
Sports Medicine · Morehead City, NCNPI 1770574022
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by speaking fees: $7,269 of the $11,540 with a category attached, or 63.0%. Avanos Medical accounts for 84.3% of it on its own, with 15 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2020 at $5,294 and has fallen 96.5% since, to $188 in 2025.
Across 58 payments — averaging $198.96 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Avanos Medical$10K
- Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated$1K
- Si-bone, Inc.$162
- Bioventus LLC$161
- Vertex$92
- Amgen$87
- plus $273 from 10 others
Across 2 payments — averaging $500.00 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.
- Avanos Medical$1K
What the payments were for
- Speaking & faculty fees$7,26963%
- Travel & lodging$3,14027%
- Food & beverage$1,13110%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Avanos Medical | 15 | $9,729 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 8 | $1,036 |
| Si-bone, Inc. | 3 | $162 |
| Bioventus LLC | 6 | $161 |
| Vertex | 4 | $92 |
| Amgen | 5 | $87 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 6 | $59 |
| Medacta USA, Inc. | 1 | $48 |
| Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 3 | $43 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $22 |
| Vericel Corporation | 1 | $21 |
| Fidia Pharma USA Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $17 |
| Paragon 28, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 1 | $17 |
| Heraeus Medical, LLC. | 1 | $9 |
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.
- COOLIEF$7,755
- Iovera$862
- GENERATOR$684
- ON-Q* PUMP AND ACCESSORIES$579
- COOLIEF* COOLED RADIOFREQUENCY$453
How this compares
$11,540 in reported general payments places this provider in the 80th percentile of 158 sports medicine providers in North Carolina.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Piroxicam | 14 | $6,565 |
| Tizanidine Hcl | 460 | $5,611 |
| Calcipotriene | 11 | $3,175 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 36 | $2,019 |
| Naproxen | 117 | $1,809 |
| Gabapentin | 176 | $1,744 |
| Nortriptyline Hcl | 56 | $1,063 |
| Pregabalin | 44 | $1,046 |
| Lidocaine | 13 | $1,044 |
| Celecoxib | 47 | $1,008 |
| Duloxetine Hcl | 61 | $707 |
| Ibuprofen | 30 | $445 |
| Methylprednisolone | 27 | $174 |
| Methocarbamol | 16 | $152 |
| Amitriptyline Hcl | 17 | $50 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other sports medicine in Morehead City
- Brian WatermanWinston Salem$360K
- Allston StubbsWinston Salem$184K
- Robert BoykinAsheville$126K
- Tally EddingsAsheville$109K
- Rebecca BassettGreensboro$69K
- Wallace HarrisAsheville$58K
- Alan ReynoldsGreensboro$54K
- Fletcher PreussCharlotte$53K
- Anthony MaroisSherrills Ford$47K
- Andrew KerstenHendersonville$41K
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.