Max Lee, MD
Neurological Surgery · Milwaukee, WINPI 1841231958
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $437,079 of the $456,453 with a category attached, or 95.8%. Spinal Elements, Inc. accounts for 81.1% of it on its own, with 11 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $139,407 and has fallen 95.4% since, to $6,428 in 2025. Among neurological surgery clinicians in WI 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 114 payments — averaging $4003.97 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Spinal Elements, Inc.$370K
- Amendia, Inc.$67K
- Medtronic$7K
- Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc$7K
- Spineart USA Inc$2K
- Orthofix Medical, Inc.$2K
- plus $2K from 6 others
Across 19 payments — averaging $26,492 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.
- Spinal Elements, Inc.$503K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$437,07996%
- Consulting fees$10,4952%
- Travel & lodging$3,9461%
- Food & beverage$4,9331%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Spinal Elements, Inc. | 14 | $370,261 |
| Amendia, Inc. | 4 | $66,996 |
| Medtronic | 56 | $7,340 |
| Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc | 5 | $6,653 |
| Spineart USA Inc | 11 | $1,887 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 12 | $1,675 |
| Cerapedics Inc. | 6 | $817 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 2 | $283 |
| Spinal Simplicity, LLC | 1 | $181 |
| Abbott | 1 | $168 |
| Expanding Innovations, Inc. | 1 | $112 |
| Globus Medical | 1 | $80 |
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.
- OVERWATCH$297,766
- OVDI$139,313
- MagnetOs$6,593
- CD HORIZON SPINAL SYSTEM$4,043
- M6-C Artificial Cervical Disc$1,396
- MAZOR X SYSTEM$854
- I-FACTOR PEPTIDE ENHANCED BONE GRAFT$784
- INFINITY OCCIPITOCERVICAL UPPER THORACIC SYSTEM$725
- ATHLET$407
- UNID_PASS$266
- CATALYFT PL EXPANDABLE INTERBODY SYSTEM$249
- Perla TL$206
- HA MINUTEMAN G3-R$181
- GALLANT$168
- FIBERGRAFT BG Morsels$146
- TRIALTIS$146
- ACF$146
- Medical Device$140
- VIPER$136
- X-PAC$112
How this compares
$456,453 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 133 neurological surgery providers in Wisconsin.
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 neurological surgery in Milwaukee
- Amin KassamMilwaukee$1M
- Kevin WojcikMilwaukee$58K
- Saman ShabaniMilwaukee$56K
- Marjorie WangMilwaukee$52K
- Nathan ZwagermanMilwaukee$34K
- Dan HeffezMilwaukee$31K
- Kunal GuptaMilwaukee$26K
- Walter JacobsenMilwaukee$19K
- Erickson TorioMilwaukee$11K
- Ahmed CheemaMilwaukee$9K
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.