George West, MD
Neurological Surgery · Houston, TXNPI 1528074135
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (28.0%), consulting fees and food and beverage — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 51 manufacturers reported payments, led by Wenzel Spine, Inc. at 33.2% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $11,859 and has fallen 62.5% since, to $4,446 in 2025.
Across 280 payments — averaging $184.90 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Wenzel Spine, Inc.$17K
- Medtronic$10K
- Providence Medical Technology, Inc.$8K
- Globus Medical$4K
- Intrinsic Therapeutics$3K
- Spine Wave, Inc.$3K
- plus $7K from 45 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$14,19027%
- Speaking & faculty fees$14,50028%
- Travel & lodging$9,09518%
- Food & beverage$13,98627%
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.
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.
- Varilift$17,024
- MIDAS REX$8,534
- BARRICAID ACD (ANNULAR CLOSURE DEVICE)$5,128
- Spinal Implants$2,238
- VIPER$1,265
- CAVUX Cervical Cage$1,152
- DTRAX Spinal System$1,152
- ALLY Bone Screw$1,152
- BIOLOGIX Allograft Bone$1,152
- Simplify Cervical Artificial Disc$1,092
- CONCORDE$1,030
- Excelsius - GPS$1,004
- Catamaran Sacroiliac Joint Fixation System$725
- MagnetOs$637
- RISE-L$631
- CONDUIT$248
- XLIF$202
- MAZOR X SYSTEM$165
- STEALTHSTATION S8 PLATFORM$150
- LessRay$144
How this compares
$51,771 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 582 neurological surgery 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 | 95 | $1,237 |
| Tizanidine Hcl | 64 | $425 |
| Gabapentin | 29 | $292 |
| Methocarbamol | 21 | $231 |
| Acetaminophen-CodeineAcetaminophen With Codeine | 16 | $214 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 14 | $154 |
| Meloxicam | 17 | $40 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other neurological surgery in Houston
- Andrew RoeserHouston$660K
- Paul HolmanHouston$516K
- Taylor GistHouston$447K
- Meng HuangHouston$324K
- Laurence RhinesHouston$322K
- Omar TanweerHouston$254K
- Jeremy WangHouston$231K
- Alexander RopperHouston$208K
- Fangyi ZhangHouston$192K
- Ashwin ViswanathanHouston$185K
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.