Richard Fessler, MD
Neurological Surgery · Chicago, ILNPI 1447473426
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $695,099 of the $909,539 with a category attached, or 76.4%. Depuy Synthes Products, Inc. accounts for 75.0% of it on its own, with 26 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $315,864 and has fallen 98.8% since, to $3,910 in 2025. Among neurological surgery clinicians in IL 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 278 payments — averaging $3271.72 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Depuy Synthes Products, Inc.$682K
- Spinal Elements, Inc.$89K
- Orthofix Medical, Inc.$66K
- Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$57K
- Benvenue Medical Inc$8K
- Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc$2K
- plus $6K from 21 others
Across 27 payments — averaging $5788.50 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.$123K
- Orthofix Medical, Inc.$19K
- Stryker$15K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$695,09976%
- Consulting fees$178,90320%
- Travel & lodging$19,1942%
- Food & beverage$16,0892%
- Entertainment$2550%
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. | 9 | $681,941 |
| Spinal Elements, Inc. | 67 | $88,981 |
| Orthofix Medical, Inc. | 77 | $65,640 |
| Medical Device Business Services, Inc. | 34 | $57,129 |
| Benvenue Medical Inc | 23 | $7,855 |
| Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc | 10 | $2,040 |
| Carlsmed, Inc. | 7 | $1,202 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 11 | $916 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 7 | $820 |
| Globus Medical(2 entities) | 8 | $700 |
| Alphatec Spine, Inc | 2 | $458 |
| Seaspine Orthopedics Corporation | 3 | $300 |
| Si-bone, Inc. | 2 | $184 |
| Integrity Implants Inc. | 2 | $183 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 2 | $176 |
| Spineology Inc. | 2 | $163 |
| ETS Wound Care LLC | 1 | $147 |
| Zimvie Inc. | 1 | $137 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 2 | $125 |
| Life Spine, Inc. | 1 | $122 |
| Spinal Simplicity, LLC | 1 | $99 |
| Zap Surgical Systems, Inc. | 1 | $64 |
| Providence Medical Technology, Inc. | 1 | $57 |
| Trinity Orthopedics, LLC | 1 | $47 |
| Adcura, Inc. | 1 | $27 |
| Highridge Medical LLC | 1 | $20 |
| Medicrea USA, Corp. | 1 | $7 |
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.
- EXPEDIUM$668,999
- LUNA$84,487
- Kiva VCF Treatment System$7,394
- Blazer Vertebral Augmentation Kit$7,394
- NorthStar$6,906
- Medical Device$2,176
- MagnetOs$1,660
- Teligen$1,477
- ASCENT;ASCENT LE;CENTURION$1,458
- ASCENT;ASCENT LE;FIREBIRD SFS;ICON SFS;SFS$1,290
- aprevo$1,153
- Medical Devices$909
- Velys$756
- M6-C$558
- FORZA$548
- JANUS$548
- VIPER$464
- Ascent$287
- X-PAC$241
- Centurion$201
How this compares
$909,539 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 302 neurological surgery providers in Illinois.
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 Chicago
- Tyler KoskiChicago$2.3M
- Vincent TraynelisChicago$1.8M
- Sergey NeckryshChicago$1.6M
- John OtooleChicago$593K
- Fady CharbelChicago$507K
- Issam AwadChicago$266K
- Mohamad BydonChicago$163K
- Ali AlarajChicago$155K
- Konstantin SlavinChicago$153K
- Joshua RosenowChicago$152K
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.