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

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $22,148 in general payments to John Watkins, MD across 502 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 Watkins, 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 Watkins, 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 Watkins, MD

Pain Medicine · Albuquerque, NMNPI 1851367718

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by food and beverage: $19,578 of the $22,148 with a category attached, or 88.4%. Abbott accounts for 72.2% of it on its own, with 14 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $5,165 and has fallen 50.0% since, to $2,581 in 2025. Among pain medicine clinicians in NM 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.

$22,148in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 502 payments — averaging $44.12 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Abbott$16K
Boston Scientific$4K
Nalu Medical, Inc.$1K
Aurora Spine, Inc.$621
Medtronic$502
Globus Medical$137
plus $342 from 9 others

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$2,57012%
Food & beverage$19,57888%

Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.

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
Abbott	410	$15,996
Boston Scientific	58	$3,507
Nalu Medical, Inc.	9	$1,043
Aurora Spine, Inc.	1	$621
Medtronic(2 entities)	8	$502
Globus Medical	2	$137
Vapotherm Inc	1	$95
AbbVie	4	$93
Scilex Pharmaceuticals Inc.	2	$33
DJO, LLC	1	$27
Johnson & Johnson	1	$25
Amgen	1	$23
Si-bone, Inc.	1	$19
Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC	1	$17
Orthofix Medical, Inc.	2	$11

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.

PROCLAIM$2,541
SUPERION$1,158
Proclaim Family of SCS IPGs$1,049
Nalu Neurostimulation System$827
Proclaim IPG$751
ZIP$621
INFINITY$301
OCTRODE$217
Axium INS DRG IPG$180
INTELLIS ADAPTIVESTIM$171
ETERNA$139
PRODIGY$134
KYPHON EXPRESS II KYPHOPAK TRAY$133
VERTIFLEX SUPERION$128
Superion Indirect Decompression System$123
AERIAL$123
Octrode SCS Leads$112
WAVEWRITER ALPHA$108
Intracept$100

How this compares

$22,148 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 36 pain medicine providers in New Mexico.

See all pain medicine providers in New Mexico →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$216,934

Medicare patients

267

Services billed

3,417

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
BelbucaBuprenorphine Hcl	48	$31,521
Buprenorphine Hcl	153	$8,006
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	318	$5,705
Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen	168	$4,420
OxycontinOxycodone Hcl	14	$4,383
Pregabalin	165	$3,186
Buprenorphine	16	$2,747
Acetaminophen-CodeineAcetaminophen With Codeine	111	$2,333
Oxycodone Hcl	131	$2,024
Diclofenac Sodium	28	$1,944
Gabapentin	186	$1,658
Naloxone Hcl	18	$1,215
Lidocaine	18	$1,177
Morphine Sulfate ErMorphine Sulfate	26	$846
Tizanidine Hcl	92	$722

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other pain medicine in Albuquerque

Craig RumbaughAlbuquerque$11K
Eugene KoshkinAlbuquerque$10K
Matthew BergstenAlbuquerque$7K
Lauren HarrisAlbuquerque$6K
Melissa MerhegeAlbuquerque$5K
Jeremy ChastainAlbuquerque$5K
Joshu RaitenAlbuquerque$4K
Thomas WhalenAlbuquerque$4K
Matthew ValerianoAlbuquerque$4K
Umar CheemaAlbuquerque$4K

See the full list for New Mexico →

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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