Hewatt Sims, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Douglas, GANPI 1386653061
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — royalties or licence payments (51.3%), consulting fees and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 29 manufacturers reported payments, led by Precision Spine, Inc. at 48.8% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $109,414 and has fallen 50.3% since, to $54,399 in 2025.
Across 132 payments — averaging $2850.90 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Precision Spine, Inc.$184K
- Spineart SA$70K
- Medical Investment Advisors LLC$68K
- Arteriocyte Medical Systems, Inc.$40K
- Zavation Medical Products, LLC$5K
- CGG Medical Inc$2K
- plus $7K from 23 others
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$192,87551%
- Consulting fees$166,95644%
- Travel & lodging$12,7013%
- Food & beverage$3,7871%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Precision Spine, Inc. | 44 | $183,673 |
| Spineart SA | 7 | $70,268 |
| Medical Investment Advisors LLC | 12 | $68,276 |
| Arteriocyte Medical Systems, Inc. | 1 | $40,000 |
| Zavation Medical Products, LLC | 1 | $5,017 |
| CGG Medical Inc | 1 | $2,442 |
| Intelivation Technologies, LLC | 3 | $1,750 |
| Spineology Inc. | 9 | $1,605 |
| Boston Scientific | 11 | $791 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 5 | $772 |
| Spinal Simplicity, LLC | 8 | $571 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 4 | $288 |
| Choice Spine, LLC | 1 | $249 |
| Stryker(2 entities) | 3 | $94 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 3 | $75 |
| Vertex | 3 | $73 |
| Intrinsic Therapeutics | 1 | $52 |
| Smith+Nephew | 3 | $49 |
| Nalu Medical, Inc. | 1 | $47 |
| Bioventus LLC | 2 | $36 |
| Amgen | 1 | $28 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 1 | $27 |
| Arthrex | 1 | $24 |
| Pacira Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $22 |
| Si-bone, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $20 |
| Portola Pharmaceuticals, LLC | 1 | $19 |
| Acacia Pharma Inc | 1 | $18 |
| Pfizer | 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.
- Reform Modular$84,886
- DAKOTA ALIF SYSTEM$38,494
- MD Vue Lateral Access System$37,137
- PERLA C$36,045
- CURE LP - ANTERIOR LUMBAR PLATE$34,223
- Reform Pedicle Screw System$19,884
- INTERVERTEBRAL BODY FUSION DEVICE$15,000
- OptiMesh Interbody Fusion System$1,067
- Velys$608
- GENERAL PAIN MANAGEMENT$586
- OPTIMESH EXPANDABLE INTERBODY FUSION SYSTEM$467
- LIBERTY SI$329
- HA MINUTEMAN G3-R$329
- Blackhawk Cervical Spacer System$249
- Thunderbolt Minimally Invasive Pedicle Screw Systems$249
- VEO Lateral Interbody Fusion System$249
- Triton$249
- Stratofuse$249
- Teligen$126
How this compares
$376,319 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 57 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Georgia.
See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Georgia →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen | 93 | $1,150 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 103 | $1,015 |
| Celecoxib | 28 | $358 |
| Diazepam | 80 | $206 |
| Pregabalin | 11 | $102 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 24 | $74 |
| Levofloxacin | 11 | $43 |
| Meloxicam | 14 | $24 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Douglas
- John HellerAtlanta$4.2M
- Scott BodenAtlanta$1.5M
- Justin BundyAugusta$1.4M
- John RheeAtlanta$1.1M
- Tapan DaftariAustell$759K
- Brad PrybisStockbridge$659K
- Paul JeffordsAtlanta$651K
- Raphael RoybalSavannah$400K
- James MalcolmMarietta$295K
- Melanie KinchenAtlanta$254K
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.