Edwin Blitch, DPM
Foot & Ankle Surgery · Charleston, SCNPI 1376518795
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by travel and lodging: $1,168 of the $1,565 with a category attached, or 74.6%. Peerless Surgical Inc. accounts for 85.6% of it on its own, with 5 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $1,340 and has fallen 98.8% since, to $17 in 2025. That places this record below the midpoint for foot & ankle surgery clinicians in SC, where the typical reported total is $3,057.
Across 11 payments — averaging $142.30 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Peerless Surgical Inc.$1K
- Stryker$160
- Abbott$23
- Trice Medical, Inc.$17
- Smith+Nephew$13
- Paragon 28, Inc.$12
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$1,16875%
- Food & beverage$39825%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Peerless Surgical Inc. | 5 | $1,340 |
| Stryker(2 entities) | 2 | $160 |
| Abbott | 1 | $23 |
| Trice Medical, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $13 |
| Paragon 28, Inc. | 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.
- ANCHORAGE$143
How this compares
$1,565 in reported general payments places this provider in the 30th percentile of 87 foot & ankle surgery providers in South 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Terbinafine Hcl | 18 | $425 |
| Gabapentin | 39 | $314 |
| Meloxicam | 81 | $271 |
| Methylprednisolone | 30 | $179 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 11 | $139 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other foot & ankle surgery in Charleston
- Christopher GrossCharleston$394K
- Rahn RavenellCharleston$51K
- Drennan JoseyCharleston$7K
- Sarah CullenCharleston$6K
- Amanda FlammanCharleston$4K
- Brandon BultsmaCharleston$2K
- Benjamin OverleyHilton Head Island$643K
- Tyler GonzalezColumbia$525K
- Alison GartenRock Hill$419K
- Robert KleinGreenville$358K
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.