Earl Walker, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Morganton, NCNPI 1518066976
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 144 payments — averaging $131.25 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Arthrex$11K
- Peerless Surgical Inc.$5K
- Piedmont Plus Innovation$2K
- Choice Spine, LLC$88
- Zimmer Biomet$74
- Nevro Corp.$69
- plus $328 from 12 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$9,75452%
- Food & beverage$3,12017%
- Education$6,02632%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Arthrex | 87 | $11,340 |
| Peerless Surgical Inc. | 20 | $4,845 |
| Piedmont Plus Innovation | 9 | $2,156 |
| Choice Spine, LLC | 1 | $88 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 5 | $74 |
| Nevro Corp. | 4 | $69 |
| Bioventus LLC | 4 | $69 |
| DJO, LLC | 3 | $42 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 2 | $38 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $31 |
| Vertex | 1 | $28 |
| Pacira Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $24 |
| Triad Life Sciences Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Biom'up France SAS | 1 | $18 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 1 | $16 |
| Nanohive Medical LLC | 1 | $16 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| Axogen | 1 | $12 |
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.
How this compares
$18,900 in reported general payments places this provider in the 70th percentile of 845 orthopaedic surgery 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 |
|---|---|---|
| NucyntaTapentadol Hcl | 12 | $34,351 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 57 | $656 |
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 79 | $554 |
| Doxycycline Monohydrate | 15 | $216 |
| Doxycycline Hyclate | 23 | $214 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 28 | $179 |
| Cephalexin | 40 | $138 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 17 | $132 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 16 | $130 |
| Pregabalin | 12 | $56 |
| Meloxicam | 11 | $39 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Morganton
- Jason ZookMorganton$789K
- Thomas FehringCharlotte$18.3M
- Walter BeaverCharlotte$7.4M
- Robert AndersonCharlotte$6.6M
- William JiranekDurham$6.4M
- John MasonCharlotte$6.2M
- Thomas VailDurham$5.7M
- William DavisCharlotte$5.2M
- John EllingtonCharlotte$5.2M
- Mark EasleyDurham$4.2M
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.