Robert Kukla, DPM
Foot & Ankle Surgery · Hickory, NCNPI 1871570697
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 97 payments — averaging $23.76 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Organogenesis Inc.$422
- Smith+Nephew$250
- Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc.$183
- Imbed Biosciences Inc.$163
- Next Science LLC$124
- Convatec Inc.$120
- plus $1K from 27 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$2,28299%
- Entertainment$231%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Organogenesis Inc. | 23 | $422 |
| Smith+Nephew | 11 | $250 |
| Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation Inc. | 2 | $183 |
| Imbed Biosciences Inc. | 11 | $163 |
| Next Science LLC | 3 | $124 |
| Convatec Inc. | 5 | $120 |
| Fusion Orthopedics USA, LLC | 1 | $108 |
| Fusion Orthopedics, LLC. | 1 | $97 |
| Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 6 | $94 |
| AbbVie | 3 | $73 |
| Bioventus LLC | 3 | $72 |
| Orpyx Medical Technologies US Inc. | 1 | $70 |
| Amgen | 3 | $61 |
| Boston Scientific | 2 | $57 |
| Kerecis Limited | 2 | $48 |
| Solventum Corporation | 2 | $45 |
| Melinta Therapeutics, LLC | 1 | $42 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 2 | $29 |
| Tactile Systems Technology Inc | 1 | $24 |
| Globus Medical | 1 | $21 |
| Mimedx Group, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Treace Medical Concepts, Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Nevro Corp. | 1 | $20 |
| Abbott | 1 | $17 |
| Inari Medical, Inc. | 1 | $16 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 1 | $16 |
| Averitas Pharma Inc. | 1 | $16 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $15 |
| KCI USA, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Forte Bio-pharma LLC | 1 | $15 |
| Medela LLC | 1 | $14 |
| Zyla Life Sciences, Inc. | 1 | $13 |
| Advanced Oxygen Therapy Inc. | 1 | $3 |
How this compares
$2,305 in reported general payments places this provider in the 45th percentile of 196 foot & ankle surgery providers in North Carolina.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ammonium Lactate | 48 | $1,327 |
| Clotrimazole-BetamethasoneClotrimazole/Betamethasone Dip | 42 | $788 |
| Gabapentin | 53 | $631 |
| Silver Sulfadiazine | 51 | $429 |
| SsdSilver Sulfadiazine | 36 | $328 |
| Mupirocin | 20 | $223 |
| Doxycycline Hyclate | 16 | $148 |
| Meloxicam | 43 | $132 |
| Colchicine | 24 | $115 |
| Allopurinol | 21 | $104 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other foot & ankle surgery in Hickory
- Stephen HeislerChapel Hill$525K
- Robert OlsonGastonia$473K
- Austin MatthewsLumberton$279K
- Matthew DzurikWilmington$142K
- Kristen McGinnessFayetteville$123K
- William RespessGreenville$79K
- Brian FutrellCary$71K
- Andrew HanselmanWake Forest$64K
- Kenneth BloomMooresville$53K
- Benjamin UmbelMorganton$37K
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.