Has John Heller, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $4,216,916 in general payments to John Heller, MD across 104 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean John Heller, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about John Heller, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

John Heller, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Atlanta, GANPI 1528025228

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $4,127,556 of the $4,216,916 with a category attached, or 97.9%. Medtronic accounts for 99.6% of it on its own, with 10 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $789,078 and has fallen 66.5% since, to $263,951 in 2025. Among orthopaedic surgery of the spine clinicians in GA 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.

$4,216,916in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 104 payments — averaging $40,547 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Medtronic$4.2M
Stryker$11K
Alphatec Spine, Inc$2K
Globus Medical$396
Johnson & Johnson$328
Cerapedics Inc.$257
plus $811 from 5 others

What the payments were for

Royalty or licence$4,127,55698%
Consulting fees$25,4431%
Speaking & faculty fees$50,8631%
Travel & lodging$8,2390%
Food & beverage$4,8150%

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)	61	$4,202,045
Stryker	16	$11,250
Alphatec Spine, Inc	9	$1,829
Globus Medical	2	$396
Johnson & Johnson	4	$328
Cerapedics Inc.	3	$257
Zimmer Biomet	3	$238
Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc	2	$208
Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	2	$204
Misonix Inc	1	$97
Zimvie Inc.	1	$64

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.

PYRAMID +4 ANTERIOR LUMBAR PLATE SYSTEM$2,301,211
PYRAMID$1,826,345
CENTERPIECE$52,955
EVEREST SPINAL SYSTEM$28,593
VENTURE$8,125
CENTERPIECE PLATE FIXATION SYSTEM$5,817
BRYAN CERVICAL DISC SYSTEM$3,250
CORNERSTONE PSR CERVICAL FUSION SYSTEM$2,275
Other - Miscellaneous$1,237
AVIATOR$760
ESCALATE$760
XIA$760
ES2$760
OASYS$760
UNID_PASS$488
CD HORIZON SPINAL SYSTEM$375
Modulus$272
INVICTUS OPEN$262
I-FACTOR PEPTIDE ENHANCED BONE GRAFT$237
Trestle Luxe$159

How this compares

$4,216,916 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 57 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Georgia.

See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Georgia →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$155,205

Medicare patients

174

Services billed

605

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	41	$396
Methylprednisolone	31	$170
Tramadol Hcl	18	$79
Cyclobenzaprine Hcl	13	$76

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Atlanta

Scott BodenAtlanta$1.5M
John RheeAtlanta$1.1M
Paul JeffordsAtlanta$651K
Melanie KinchenAtlanta$254K
Sangwook YoonAtlanta$227K
Keith MichaelAtlanta$194K
Brian GohAtlanta$23K
Krishna GumidyalaAtlanta$19K
Plas JamesAtlanta$10K
Douglass JohnsonAtlanta$7K

See the full list for Georgia →

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.

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