Steven Thaxter, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Fresno, CANPI 1760465496
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $27,212 of the $37,973 with a category attached, or 71.7%. Nextstep Arthropedix, LLC accounts for 77.4% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $31,833 and has fallen 94.7% since, to $1,676 in 2024.
Across 73 payments — averaging $520.18 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Nextstep Arthropedix, LLC$29K
- Arthrex$3K
- Sequoia Surgical, Inc.$2K
- Cornerstone Medical Associates, Inc.$2K
- Lima USA, Inc.$287
- Zimmer Biomet$242
- plus $233 from 3 others
Across 4 payments — averaging $25,000 each. An ownership or investment interest held by the physician or an immediate family member.
- Lazurite Inc.$100K
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$27,21272%
- Travel & lodging$4,86013%
- Food & beverage$2,4666%
- Education$3,4359%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nextstep Arthropedix, LLC | 3 | $29,403 |
| Arthrex | 43 | $3,457 |
| Sequoia Surgical, Inc. | 3 | $2,349 |
| Cornerstone Medical Associates, Inc. | 11 | $2,003 |
| Lima USA, Inc. | 3 | $287 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 6 | $242 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $138 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $56 |
| Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 2 | $40 |
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.
- iNSitu Hip System$29,403
- PPK$144
- AQUAMANTYS$138
- Physica$131
- Master SL$131
- H-Max$131
How this compares
$37,973 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th 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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 11 | $104 |
| Amoxicillin | 21 | $38 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Fresno
- Connor TellesFresno$1M
- Julia LeeFresno$458K
- Bradford HackArcadia$18.3M
- Robert GorabOrange$13.6M
- Kelly VinceLos Angeles$9.6M
- Stephen HowellSacramento$9.4M
- Thomas CoonRed Bluff$9.2M
- Nirav AminPlacentia$5.6M
- Tom NorrisSan Francisco$5.3M
- Jay LiebermanLos Angeles$4.8M
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.