Has Paul Balthrop, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $82,666 in general payments to Paul Balthrop, MD across 137 transactions between 2019–2025. Most Open Payments records nationally are meals worth under $20; a reported payment is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Does a payment mean Paul Balthrop, MD did something wrong?

No. Federal law requires drug and device makers to report almost every transfer of value to a physician, including a $14 sandwich at a lunch presentation. Consulting fees, research funding and royalties to device inventors are ordinary, legal parts of medicine. This site reports what was disclosed; it makes no allegation.

Where does this information about Paul Balthrop, MD come from?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Payments come from Open Payments, published under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Billing and prescribing figures come from the Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners and Part D Prescriber public use files for 2024.

Paul Balthrop, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery · Savannah, GANPI 1104044700

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

The money is spread across several categories — consulting fees (46.4%), speaking fees and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. Smith+Nephew accounts for 87.6% of it on its own, with 12 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $67,817, 8.6 times the $7,925 reported in 2019. Among orthopaedic surgery clinicians in GA with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.

$82,666in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 137 payments — averaging $603.40 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Smith+Nephew$72K
Synthes GmbH$6K
Bone Support Inc.$3K
Johnson & Johnson$411
Stryker$198
Access Pro Medical, LLC$145
plus $296 from 7 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$38,37946%
Speaking & faculty fees$26,12532%
Travel & lodging$12,84016%
Food & beverage$5,3226%

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
Smith+Nephew	104	$72,433
Synthes GmbH	3	$5,848
Bone Support Inc.	6	$3,335
Johnson & Johnson	10	$411
Stryker	2	$198
Access Pro Medical, LLC	1	$145
Bioventus LLC	4	$80
Curvafix, Inc.	2	$70
Paragon 28, Inc.	1	$69
Orthofix Medical, Inc.	1	$27
Boston Scientific	1	$20
Innovation Technologies Inc	1	$16
Illuminoss Medical, Inc.	1	$13

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.

How this compares

$82,666 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 654 orthopaedic surgery providers in Georgia.

See all orthopaedic surgery providers in Georgia →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$82,453

Medicare patients

121

Services billed

413

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
EliquisApixaban	23	$10,728
Celecoxib	38	$795
Gabapentin	24	$206
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	20	$158
Ibuprofen	14	$131
Oxycodone Hcl	23	$95
Meloxicam	26	$29
Tramadol Hcl	11	$28

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery in Savannah

Jonathan ChristySavannah$216K
Charles HopeSavannah$121K
Charles DecookCumming$48.3M
Ormonde MahoneyAthens$10.6M
Daxes BanitWarner Robins$5.5M
John DorchakColumbus$3.8M
Daniel SilcoxAtlanta$3.4M
Dennis DevitoAtlanta$1.5M
Jon MinterAlpharetta$1.2M
George GuildCumming$987K

See the full list for Georgia →

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.

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