Has Thomas Nienke, DO received payments from drug or device companies?

Yes. Drug and device makers reported $14,221 in general payments to Thomas Nienke, DO across 213 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 Thomas Nienke, DO 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 Thomas Nienke, DO 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.

Thomas Nienke, DO

Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · St Petersburg, FLNPI 1194976860

Payments from drug & device makers

$14,221in general payments, 2019–2025

Across 213 payments — averaging $66.76 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.

Medtronic$4K
Corelink, LLC$2K
Abbott$2K
Johnson & Johnson$1K
Centinel Spine, LLC$1K
Arthrex$581
plus $4K from 33 others

What the payments were for

Consulting fees$1,0007%
Speaking & faculty fees$1,36310%
Travel & lodging$3,89727%
Food & beverage$7,96156%

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
Medtronic(2 entities)	59	$3,533
Corelink, LLC	3	$1,896
Abbott	24	$1,599
Johnson & Johnson(2 entities)	17	$1,456
Centinel Spine, LLC	4	$1,160
Arthrex	12	$581
Augmedics Inc.	14	$485
Spine Wave, Inc.	5	$471
Si-bone, Inc.	14	$446
Boston Scientific	13	$445
Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	4	$269
Life Spine, Inc.	1	$188
Amgen	4	$176
Globus Medical	3	$176
Coastal Medical Technologies LLC	1	$136
Nexxt Spine LLC	1	$112
Elevation Spine, Inc.	1	$111
Sanara Medtech Inc.	1	$110
Medical Device Business Services, Inc.	4	$106
Intrinsic Therapeutics	3	$102
Bioventus LLC	1	$92
7d Surgical Inc.	1	$92
Surgalign Spine Technologies, Inc.	1	$58
Integra Lifesciences Corporation	2	$49
Orthofix Medical, Inc.	3	$41
Integrity Implants Inc. Dba Accelus	1	$41
Radius Health, Inc.	2	$40
Stryker(2 entities)	2	$38
Nevro Corp.	2	$34
MVP Orthopedics Inc	1	$34
Providence Medical Technology, Inc.	1	$29
Saluda Medical Americas, Inc.	1	$18
Avanos Medical	1	$17
Relievant Medsystems, Inc.	1	$16
SK Life Science, Inc.	1	$16
KCI USA, Inc.	1	$15
Foundation Fusion Solutions, LLC	1	$15
Solventum Corporation	1	$15
Spineology Inc.	1	$3

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.

KYPHON Balloon Kyphoplasty$1,225
PROCLAIM$1,077
STALIF C FLX$1,000
CORAIL$850
Xvision$650
KYPHON EXPRESS II KYPHOPAK TRAY$480
CD HORIZON SPINAL SYSTEM$327
WaveWriter Alpha Prime 16$319
SALVO SPINE SYSTEM$274
EXPAREL$241
Teligen$156
OSTEOCOOL RF ABLATION SYSTEM$145
ANTERALIGN SPINAL SYSTEM WITH TITAN NANOLOCK SURFACE TECHNOLOGY$141
EVENITY$127
DURATA$125
SPINAL IMPLANT$124
Senza$121
PRODISC L$113
Nexxt Matrixx Systems$112
CellerateRx$110

How this compares

$14,221 in reported general payments places this provider in the 45th percentile of 159 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Florida.

See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in Florida →

Medicare billing

Part B allowed, 2024

$168,735

Medicare patients

228

Services billed

3,358

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
Oxycodone Hcl	126	$1,464
Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen	91	$736
Oxycodone-AcetaminophenOxycodone Hcl/Acetaminophen	48	$624
Methocarbamol	14	$151
Baclofen	20	$143
Tramadol Hcl	33	$136
Gabapentin	20	$103
Prednisone	44	$72
Cyclobenzaprine Hcl	11	$60
Meloxicam	36	$35

Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.

Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in St Petersburg

Paul PaganoSt Petersburg$226K
Harry ShufflebargerMiami$3.5M
Paul KellerMelbourne$3.4M
Thomas SweeneySarasota$2.3M
Geoffrey CronenTampa$2.2M
James BillysOdessa$1.9M
Samuel JosephSafety Harbor$1.8M
Mark DekutoskiDestin$1.8M
Farhan SiddiqiOdessa$1.7M
Thomas ErricoMiami$1.6M

See the full list for Florida →

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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