Has Robert Howell, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $60,422 in general payments to Robert Howell, MD across 152 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 Robert Howell, 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 Robert Howell, 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.

Robert Howell, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery · Montgomery, ALNPI 1205070901

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by consulting fees: $46,913 of the $60,422 with a category attached, or 77.6%. Medical Device Business Services, Inc. accounts for 84.2% of it on its own, with 15 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $25,062 and has fallen 98.2% since, to $459 in 2025. Among orthopaedic surgery clinicians in AL 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.

$60,422in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 152 payments — averaging $397.52 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Medical Device Business Services, Inc.$51K
Encore Medical, LP$3K
Zimmer Biomet$2K
Arthrex$1K
Johnson & Johnson$1K
Medtronic$453
plus $1K from 10 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$46,91378%
Speaking & faculty fees$1,5002%
Travel & lodging$5,4389%
Food & beverage$5,3719%
Education$1,2002%

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
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.	43	$50,872
Encore Medical, LP	11	$3,277
Zimmer Biomet	20	$1,665
Arthrex	3	$1,496
Johnson & Johnson(2 entities)	21	$1,185
Medtronic(2 entities)	19	$453
Prime Surgical, LLC	2	$393
Smith+Nephew	10	$384
Amgen	7	$222
Stryker	3	$184
Bioventus LLC	6	$154
Think Surgical, Inc.	1	$46
Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.	3	$45
Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	1	$17
Innovation Technologies Inc	1	$15
Next Science LLC	1	$14

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

$60,422 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 319 orthopaedic surgery providers in Alabama.

See all orthopaedic surgery providers in Alabama →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$393,569

Medicare patients

718

Services billed

9,538

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
Celecoxib	706	$11,413
EliquisApixaban	17	$8,606
Tranexamic Acid	140	$2,876
Cefadroxil	323	$2,295
Ondansetron Hcl	305	$1,980
Diclofenac Sodium	40	$1,586
Oxycodone Hcl	282	$1,405
Pantoprazole Sodium	259	$1,272
Methylprednisolone	51	$486
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	63	$478
Tramadol Hcl	102	$287
Cephalexin	144	$272
Meloxicam	67	$262
Sulfamethoxazole-TrimethoprimSulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim	14	$206
Clindamycin Hcl	14	$19

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery in Montgomery

Randall MurphyMontgomery$137K
Perry HooperMontgomery$36K
Michael ElsenbeckMontgomery$18K
Jeffrey DugasBirmingham$11.5M
Benton EmblomBirmingham$3M
Herrick SiegelBirmingham$1.2M
Paul CanaleDaphne$609K
Kenneth MooreBirmingham$342K
Joseph SherrillBirmingham$221K
Jonathan QuadeBirmingham$217K

See the full list for Alabama →

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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