Gregory Nicholson, MD
Sports Medicine · Chicago, ILNPI 1477532141
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $6,410,646 of the $6,715,019 with a category attached, or 95.5%. Stryker accounts for 96.8% of it on its own, with 13 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $1,742,498, 4.1 times the $424,860 reported in 2019. Among sports medicine clinicians in IL 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 395 payments — averaging $17,000 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Stryker$6.5M
- Anika Therapeutics, Inc.$139K
- Arthrosurface Incorporated$70K
- KCI USA, Inc.$2K
- Azurmeds, Inc.$2K
- Exactech, Inc.$158
- plus $663 from 8 others
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$6,410,64695%
- Consulting fees$257,6004%
- Speaking & faculty fees$14,3500%
- Travel & lodging$25,0660%
- Food & beverage$7,3570%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stryker(2 entities) | 314 | $6,501,301 |
| Anika Therapeutics, Inc. | 38 | $139,131 |
| Arthrosurface Incorporated | 26 | $69,683 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 4 | $2,179 |
| Azurmeds, Inc. | 3 | $1,905 |
| Exactech, Inc. | 1 | $158 |
| Responsive Arthroscopy Inc | 1 | $152 |
| Smith+Nephew | 1 | $149 |
| Encore Medical, LP | 1 | $121 |
| Medacta USA, Inc. | 1 | $98 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 2 | $83 |
| Vertex | 1 | $26 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 1 | $21 |
| Heraeus Medical, LLC. | 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.
- AEQUALIS PERFORM$5,569,585
- AEQUALIS$756,839
- BLUEPRINT PATIENT SPECIFIC INSTRUMENTATION$136,699
- OVOMotion$120,131
- HemiCAP Shoulder$69,643
- SIMPLICITI$45,250
- TORNIER PERFORM REVERSED GLENOID$42,358
- RevoMotion$38,369
- REUNION$32,192
- AEQUALIS PERFORM REVERSED$24,555
- TORNIER PERFORM ANATOMIC AUGMENTED GLENOID$24,250
- TORNIER PERFORM REVERSED AUGMENTED GLENOID$23,875
- BLUEPRINT PSI SYSTEM$23,540
- PERFORM GLENOID$8,500
- R&D UPPER EXT$6,750
- SHOULDER IMPLANT$2,500
- NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT$2,250
- PREVENA RESTOR ROTO-FORM$2,125
- LTJ$1,905
- AEQUALIS FLEX REVIVE$1,670
How this compares
$6,715,019 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 233 sports medicine providers in Illinois.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Diclofenac Sodium | 179 | $1,197 |
| Methylprednisolone | 75 | $362 |
| Celecoxib | 16 | $326 |
| Meloxicam | 26 | $72 |
| Amoxicillin | 26 | $48 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other sports medicine in Chicago
- Grant GarriguesChicago$2.5M
- Brian ColeChicago$2.1M
- Brian ForsytheChicago$1.9M
- Nikhil VermaChicago$647K
- Shane NhoChicago$521K
- Vehniah TjongChicago$173K
- Aravind AthivirahamChicago$138K
- Adam YankeChicago$132K
- Nicholas TrasoliniChicago$67K
- Nicholas LemmeChicago$49K
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.