Michael Christie, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Nashville, TNNPI 1841255346
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $468,275 of the $474,221 with a category attached, or 98.7%. Depuy Synthes Products, Inc. accounts for 98.7% of it on its own, with 13 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $113,864 and has fallen 99.2% since, to $961 in 2025. Among orthopaedic surgery 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 54 payments — averaging $8781.88 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Depuy Synthes Products, Inc.$468K
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$4K
- Medacta USA, Inc.$557
- Stryker$350
- Smith+Nephew$308
- Johnson & Johnson$241
- plus $862 from 8 others
Across 23 payments — averaging $4727.17 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.
- Zimmer Biomet$66K
- Smith+Nephew$43K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$468,27599%
- Consulting fees$3,5101%
- Food & beverage$2,4371%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Depuy Synthes Products, Inc. | 26 | $468,275 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 4 | $3,629 |
| Medacta USA, Inc. | 4 | $557 |
| Stryker | 3 | $350 |
| Smith+Nephew | 4 | $308 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 2 | $241 |
| Medline Industries LP | 1 | $168 |
| Innovation Technologies Inc | 3 | $151 |
| Restor3d, Inc. | 1 | $147 |
| Mimedx Group, Inc. | 1 | $142 |
| Sanara Medtech Inc. | 1 | $124 |
| Heraeus Medical, LLC. | 2 | $105 |
| Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 1 | $13 |
| Pacira Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $12 |
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.
- RECLAIM$468,275
- PINNACLE$3,510
- S-ROM$3,510
- OR3O Dual Mobility$251
- TRIATHLON$159
- VERSAFITCUP$153
- GMK Sphere Revision System$150
- GMK EFFICIENCY$150
- REAL INTELLIGENCE$130
- CellerateRx$124
- MAKO$124
- OPERON$124
- POLARSTEM$120
- R3 ACETABULAR$120
- ATTUNE$113
- Irrisept$109
- GMK SPHERE$104
How this compares
$474,221 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 381 orthopaedic surgery 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tranexamic Acid | 18 | $590 |
| Meloxicam | 151 | $402 |
| Oxycodone Hcl | 51 | $326 |
| Cephalexin | 23 | $288 |
| Celecoxib | 15 | $180 |
| Pantoprazole Sodium | 19 | $123 |
| Amoxicillin | 60 | $105 |
| Ondansetron Hcl | 20 | $82 |
| Dexamethasone | 12 | $20 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Nashville
- Jefferson MorrisonNashville$678K
- Gregory PolkowskiNashville$526K
- Matthew WillisNashville$498K
- David DeboerNashville$448K
- Rudolph GlattesNashville$444K
- John MartinNashville$212K
- Nicholas StrasserNashville$184K
- Jeffrey HodrickNashville$173K
- Brian DierckmanNashville$172K
- Stephen EngstromNashville$149K
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.