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

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $82,020 in general payments to John Whitaker, MD across 134 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 Whitaker, 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 Whitaker, 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 Whitaker, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Bowling Green, KYNPI 1881126902

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by grants: $75,000 of the $82,020 with a category attached, or 91.4%. Medtronic accounts for 91.9% of it on its own, with 12 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $75,398 and has fallen 97.9% since, to $1,565 in 2025.

$82,020in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 134 payments — averaging $612.09 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Medtronic$75K
Stryker$4K
Orthofix Medical, Inc.$1K
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$467
Johnson & Johnson$419
Onkos Surgical, Inc.$153
plus $320 from 7 others

What the payments were for

Grants$75,00091%
Travel & lodging$1,3202%
Food & beverage$5,6827%
Education$180%

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	8	$75,413
Stryker	94	$3,956
Orthofix Medical, Inc.	10	$1,293
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.	6	$467
Johnson & Johnson	8	$419
Onkos Surgical, Inc.	1	$153
Smith+Nephew	1	$94
Heron Therapeutics, Inc.	1	$83
Bone Support Inc.	1	$39
CSL Behring	1	$33
Bioventus LLC	1	$31
Neuros Medical, Inc.	1	$25
Vertex	1	$15

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

$82,020 in reported general payments places this provider in the 55th percentile of 29 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Kentucky.

See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Kentucky →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$247,037

Medicare patients

384

Services billed

3,507

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
Methocarbamol	203	$1,707
Pregabalin	62	$1,242
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	99	$966
Oxycodone Hcl	88	$784
Naproxen	107	$624
Gabapentin	105	$582
Tramadol Hcl	154	$485
Cyclobenzaprine Hcl	45	$478
Tizanidine Hcl	28	$389
Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen	25	$373
Methylprednisolone	66	$327
Diclofenac Sodium	18	$192
Ibuprofen	13	$145
Mupirocin	11	$75
Meloxicam	54	$72

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Bowling Green

Jeffery GumLouisville$3.5M
Mladen DjurasovicLouisville$3.1M
Keneth StrengePaducah$2.6M
Roger OwensLouisville$1.3M
Robert KnetscheDanville$1.2M
Charles CrawfordLouisville$836K
Joseph LarattaLouisville$819K
Venu VemuriLouisville$796K
Kathryn McCarthy MulloolyLouisville$426K
John DimarLouisville$266K

See the full list for Kentucky →

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.

Is this you, or does something look wrong? →