Lawrence Babat, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Nashville, TNNPI 1619978822
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $607,006 of the $927,894 with a category attached, or 65.4%. Republic Spine accounts for 95.0% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $258,894 and has fallen 61.7% since, to $99,260 in 2025. Among orthopaedic surgery of the spine clinicians in TN 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 122 payments — averaging $7605.69 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Republic Spine$882K
- Orthofix Medical, Inc.$44K
- Nevro Corp.$804
- Abbott$400
- Boston Scientific$234
- Life Spine, Inc.$232
- plus $456 from 3 others
Across 3 payments — averaging $124,339 each. An ownership or investment interest held by the physician or an immediate family member.
- Vesalio, Inc.$373K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$607,00665%
- Consulting fees$317,75034%
- Food & beverage$3,1380%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Republic Spine | 40 | $881,947 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 31 | $43,820 |
| Nevro Corp. | 17 | $804 |
| Abbott | 18 | $400 |
| Boston Scientific | 11 | $234 |
| Life Spine, Inc. | 1 | $232 |
| Amgen | 2 | $221 |
| Biocomposites Inc | 1 | $141 |
| Spinal Elements, Inc. | 1 | $95 |
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.
- Dark Star Pedicle Screw System$243,750
- POSTERIOR CERVICAL$96,000
- Restore Line Extension$96,000
- Dark Star Posterior Cervical$74,000
- Icon$19,225
- Dark Star$11,676
- ICON (TM) MODULAR PEDICLE SCREW SYSTEM$11,598
- Dark Star Restore$11,527
- Firebird$9,935
- Restore Interbody Fusion System$9,238
- Physio-Stim$2,911
- Senza Spinal Cord Stimulation System$266
- ARx$232
- EVENITY$221
- NorthStar$152
- Meridian$152
- Omnia$146
- ETERNA$146
- Stimulan$141
- Senza$132
How this compares
$927,894 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 51 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Tennessee.
See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Tennessee →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oxycodone Hcl | 11 | $84 |
| Gabapentin | 16 | $63 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Nashville
- Raymond GardockiNashville$666K
- Colin CrosbyNashville$134K
- Morgan LorioNashville$56K
- Ryan SnowdenNashville$29K
- Byron StephensNashville$20K
- Daniel KiridlyNashville$14K
- Christopher KauffmanNashville$12K
- Amir AbtahiNashville$8K
- Melvin LawNashville$6K
- Elliott KimNashville$5K
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.