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

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $7,524 in general payments to John Watkins, MD across 58 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

Orthopaedic Surgery · Minocqua, WINPI 1457339079

Payments from drug & device makers

$7,524in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 58 payments — averaging $129.73 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Smith+Nephew$4K
Arthrex$2K
Zimmer Biomet$1K
Gemini Medical LLC$241
Gemini Mountain Medical, LLC$131
Catalyst Orthoscience$50
plus $149 from 7 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$270%
Travel & lodging$3,04040%
Food & beverage$2,14428%
Education$2,31331%

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
Smith+Nephew	24	$3,853
Arthrex	12	$2,095
Zimmer Biomet	6	$1,006
Gemini Medical LLC	5	$241
Gemini Mountain Medical, LLC	3	$131
Catalyst Orthoscience	1	$50
Xiros Inc	1	$31
Foundation Medical, LLC	1	$28
Z-medica, LLC	1	$27
GSK	1	$20
Stryker	1	$20
Johnson & Johnson	1	$17
Orthofix Medical, Inc.	1	$6

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.

How this compares

$7,524 in reported general payments places this provider in the 65th percentile of 498 orthopaedic surgery providers in Wisconsin.

See all orthopaedic surgery providers in Wisconsin →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$10,186

Medicare patients

Services billed

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
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	20	$116
Oxycodone Hcl	12	$49

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery in Minocqua

Robert ChurchillGrafton$8.3M
Richard IllgenMadison$6.1M
Jeffrey McLaughlinOshkosh$2M
Clifford TribusMadison$1.4M
Thomas ZdeblickMadison$1.1M
Rick PapandreaPewaukee$747K
Christopher BibboStevens Point$717K
Justin MitchellOnalaska$666K
Robert LimoniAppleton$526K
Paul AndersonVerona$456K

See the full list for Wisconsin →

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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