Has Stephen Waggoner, MD received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $2,493 in general payments to Stephen Waggoner, MD across 18 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 Stephen Waggoner, 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 Stephen Waggoner, 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.

Stephen Waggoner, MD

Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Bartlett, TNNPI 1871589283

Payments from drug & device makers

What this record shows

This record is dominated by travel and lodging: $1,901 of the $2,493 with a category attached, or 76.3%. Stryker accounts for 88.2% of it on its own, with 2 other manufacturers making up the rest. 2025 is the largest year on record at $2,045, more than ten times the $165 reported in 2019. That places this record below the midpoint for orthopaedic surgery of the spine clinicians in TN, where the typical reported total is $7,717.

$2,493in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 18 payments — averaging $138.48 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Stryker$2K
Amgen$261
Nevro Corp.$34

What the payments were for

Travel & lodging$1,90176%
Food & beverage$59224%

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
Stryker	9	$2,198
Amgen	7	$261
Nevro Corp.	2	$34

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.

TRIATHLON$291
MAKO$153

How this compares

$2,493 in reported general payments places this provider in the 25th percentile of 51 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Tennessee.

See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Tennessee →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$353,688

Medicare patients

613

Services billed

3,087

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	38	$1,343
Meloxicam	341	$978
Diclofenac Sodium	27	$348
Methylprednisolone	50	$317
Cyclobenzaprine Hcl	23	$54
Methocarbamol	23	$47
Tramadol Hcl	17	$45
Cephalexin	21	$19

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Bartlett

Lawrence BabatNashville$928K
Raymond GardockiNashville$666K
Samuel SchroerluckeMemphis$451K
James JolleyChattanooga$231K
John BurlesonSmyrna$184K
Michael McNamaraFranklin$150K
John KlekampFranklin$148K
Daniel WellsKnoxville$135K
Colin CrosbyNashville$134K
Garrick CasonCleveland$65K

See the full list for Tennessee →

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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