Stephen Howell, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Sacramento, CANPI 1972697704
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $6,674,239 of the $9,425,246 with a category attached, or 70.8%. Medacta USA, Inc. accounts for 87.4% of it on its own, with 5 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $2,710,197, 2.7 times the $997,773 reported in 2019. Among orthopaedic surgery clinicians in CA 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 783 payments — averaging $12,037 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medacta USA, Inc.$8.2M
- Zimmer Biomet$1.1M
- Think Surgical, Inc.$44K
- Paragon 28, Inc.$55
- Stryker$30
- Heraeus Medical, LLC.$16
Across 2 payments — averaging $16,931 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.
- Medacta USA, Inc.$34K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$6,674,23971%
- Consulting fees$2,503,58427%
- Speaking & faculty fees$16,8000%
- Travel & lodging$210,5662%
- Food & beverage$20,0580%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medacta USA, Inc. | 744 | $8,240,324 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 31 | $1,140,546 |
| Think Surgical, Inc. | 5 | $44,275 |
| Paragon 28, Inc. | 1 | $55 |
| Stryker | 1 | $30 |
| Heraeus Medical, LLC. | 1 | $16 |
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.
- GMK SPHERE$3,849,096
- MYKNEE$1,939,275
- GMK Sphere Revision System$1,670,131
- Toggleloc$764,469
- EZ Loc Fmrl Fixation$764,469
- EZLoc$321,480
- KA Instruments$280,596
- SPHERIKA$174,773
- MOTO Partial Knee System$53,700
- ACL$53,291
- Tsolution One Surgical System$44,275
- AMISTEM$8,745
- AMIStem H Femoral Stems$3,162
- MOTO UNI$278
- GMK$234
How this compares
$9,425,246 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 1,808 orthopaedic surgery providers in California.
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 orthopaedic surgery in Sacramento
- Christopher KreulenSacramento$3.8M
- Alan HiraharaSacramento$3.4M
- Bradford HackArcadia$18.3M
- Robert GorabOrange$13.6M
- Kelly VinceLos Angeles$9.6M
- Thomas CoonRed Bluff$9.2M
- Nirav AminPlacentia$5.6M
- Tom NorrisSan Francisco$5.3M
- Jay LiebermanLos Angeles$4.8M
- Peter NewtonSan Diego$4.2M
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.