Russell Nockels, MD
Neurological Surgery · Arlington Heights, ILNPI 1750368635
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $1,097,646 of the $1,355,740 with a category attached, or 81.0%. Medtronic accounts for 99.9% of it on its own, with 2 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2021 at $283,700 and has fallen 56.4% since, to $123,791 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 214 payments — averaging $6335.23 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medtronic$1.4M
- Stryker$1K
- Carbofix Spine Inc$88
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$1,097,64681%
- Consulting fees$72,2755%
- Speaking & faculty fees$154,12511%
- Travel & lodging$28,9062%
- Food & beverage$2,7880%
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.
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.
- CD HORIZON SPINAL SYSTEM$704,239
- CD HORIZON$519,333
- CRESCENT$37,400
- CLYDESDALE$11,431
- PIVOX Oblique Lateral Spinal System$11,218
- DIVERGENCE-L$10,173
- CLYDESDALE PTC SPINAL SYSTEM$7,737
- CATALYFT PL EXPANDABLE INTERBODY SYSTEM$7,363
- SOVEREIGN$1,900
- GENERAL K2M PRODUCT DISCUSSION$553
- BACS$367
- STEALTHSTATION S8 PLATFORM$170
- EVEREST$145
How this compares
$1,355,740 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 Arlington Heights
- Tibor BocoArlington Heights$99K
- Tyler KoskiChicago$2.3M
- Vincent TraynelisChicago$1.8M
- Sergey NeckryshChicago$1.6M
- Bruce FrankelSpringfield$1.3M
- Richard FesslerChicago$910K
- Julian BailesEvanston$666K
- John OtooleChicago$593K
- Patrick SugruePark Ridge$571K
- Melissa MaciasRockford$529K
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.