Kenneth Easton, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Grand Rapids, MINPI 1194713669
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $22,903 of the $30,363 with a category attached, or 75.4%. Cutting Edge Spine, LLC accounts for 75.4% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $12,892 and has fallen 81.7% since, to $2,364 in 2025.
Across 268 payments — averaging $113.30 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Cutting Edge Spine, LLC$23K
- Medtronic$4K
- Stryker$2K
- VB Spine LLC$2K
- Zak Ortho$332
- Arthrex$55
- plus $91 from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$22,90375%
- Grants$190%
- Travel & lodging$2,8209%
- Food & beverage$4,59615%
- Education$250%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting Edge Spine, LLC | 11 | $22,903 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 231 | $3,812 |
| Stryker | 13 | $1,637 |
| VB Spine LLC | 4 | $1,533 |
| Zak Ortho | 3 | $332 |
| Arthrex | 3 | $55 |
| Orthopediatrics Corp. | 1 | $35 |
| Abbott | 1 | $33 |
| Arteriocyte Medical Systems, Inc. | 1 | $23 |
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.
- ES2 SPINAL SYSTEM$1,533
- AERO-LL$780
- MAZOR X SYSTEM$586
- EVEREST SPINAL SYSTEM$573
- O-ARM-Spine$165
- MAKO$145
- DIVERGENCE$142
How this compares
$30,363 in reported general payments places this provider in the 65th percentile of 37 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Michigan.
See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Michigan →
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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Methocarbamol | 65 | $332 |
| Methylprednisolone | 27 | $137 |
| Gabapentin | 14 | $115 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Grand Rapids
- Joseph BrownGrand Rapids$565K
- Matthew KarekGrand Rapids$90K
- Scott RussoGrand Rapids$37K
- Jeffrey ChoiGrand Rapids$8K
- Jason SquiresGrand Rapids$6K
- James StubbartGrand Rapids$2K
- Peter BonoSouthfield$786K
- Nilesh PatelDearborn$449K
- Michael KastenKalamazoo$261K
- John LamacchiaRochester$179K
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.