James Schwender, MD
Orthopedic Surgery · Minneapolis, MNNPI 1558302372
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $3,688,626 of the $3,705,342 with a category attached, or 99.5%. Medtronic accounts for 87.1% of it on its own, with 9 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $1,105,031 and has fallen 80.9% since, to $210,686 in 2025.
Across 83 payments — averaging $44,643 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medtronic$3.2M
- Stryker$461K
- Orthofix Medical, Inc.$16K
- Curiteva, Inc.$256
- Ossdsign USA Incorporated$206
- Cerapedics Inc.$130
- plus $293 from 4 others
Across 2 payments — averaging $4522.38 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.
- Orthofix Medical, Inc.$9K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$3,688,626100%
- Consulting fees$14,6250%
- Travel & lodging$1,0240%
- Food & beverage$9380%
- Education$1300%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 45 | $3,227,703 |
| Stryker | 6 | $460,959 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 12 | $15,796 |
| Curiteva, Inc. | 2 | $256 |
| Ossdsign USA Incorporated | 2 | $206 |
| Cerapedics Inc. | 12 | $130 |
| Curasan, Inc. | 1 | $123 |
| Axis Spine Technologies Inc. | 1 | $110 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $40 |
| Carlsmed, Inc. | 1 | $20 |
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.
- ELEVATE$1,391,588
- CD HORIZON SPINAL SYSTEM$899,966
- CD HORIZON$687,949
- ES2$460,959
- ELEVATE SPINAL SYSTEM$248,164
- Ascent$1,024
- OssDsign Catalyst$138
- Ceracell Ortho Foam$123
- Axis Spine Technologies ALIF$110
How this compares
Too few orthopedic surgery providers in Minnesotato place this figure against a meaningful peer group, so we don't.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gabapentin | 33 | $502 |
| Methylprednisolone | 24 | $179 |
| Methocarbamol | 45 | $173 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopedic surgery in Minneapolis
- Michael BaerMinneapolis$6K
- Kirk AadalenMinneapolis$2K
- Marc SwiontkowskiMinneapolis$1K
- Gaurav KhannaMinneapolis$111
- Denis ClohisyMinneapolis$0
- Peter GoldschmidtDuluth$834
- Robin HendricksDuluth$165
- Joseph TeynorEdina$0
- John KearnsEdina$0
- Tad MabryRochester$0
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.