Joseph Buckwalter, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Iowa City, IANPI 1790777167
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by speaking fees: $120,000 of the $131,585 with a category attached, or 91.2%. Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc. accounts for 97.7% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $31,152 and has fallen 50.5% since, to $15,425 in 2025. Among orthopaedic surgery clinicians in IA 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.
Across 75 payments — averaging $1754.46 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc.$129K
- Trimed, Inc.$1K
- Sonex Health, Inc.$715
- Zimmer Biomet$559
- Johnson & Johnson$227
- Acumed LLC$205
- plus $261 from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Speaking & faculty fees$120,00091%
- Travel & lodging$9,6417%
- Food & beverage$1,9431%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc. | 45 | $128,617 |
| Trimed, Inc. | 5 | $1,001 |
| Sonex Health, Inc. | 6 | $715 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 6 | $559 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 6 | $227 |
| Acumed LLC | 2 | $205 |
| Wardlow Enterprises | 3 | $191 |
| Acera Surgical, Inc. | 1 | $42 |
| Stryker | 1 | $28 |
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.
- Sx-One Microknife$591
- Tools - CFS$515
- ACUMED$436
- Tools - WFS$314
- ROSA$195
- TAPESTRY$150
- LCP$100
How this compares
$131,585 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 219 orthopaedic surgery providers in Iowa.
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.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Iowa City
- John CallaghanIowa City$23.3M
- Brian AdamsIowa City$865K
- Cesar de Cesar NettoIowa City$693K
- Robert WestermannIowa City$182K
- Brendan PattersonIowa City$122K
- Nicholas BedardIowa City$59K
- Charles ClarkIowa City$50K
- Dallas VanornyIowa City$37K
- Joseph GalvinIowa City$28K
- John GreenIowa City$18K
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.