Thomas Rivers, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery · Sugar Land, TXNPI 1518963834
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 47 payments — averaging $153.49 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Medinc Of Texas$3K
- Encore Medical, LP$2K
- Zimmer Biomet$943
- Stryker$346
- Arthrex$303
- Orthalign Inc$27
- plus $88 from 6 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$4,07857%
- Food & beverage$1,37919%
- Education$1,75724%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medinc Of Texas | 10 | $3,053 |
| Encore Medical, LP | 8 | $2,454 |
| Zimmer Biomet | 12 | $943 |
| Stryker | 7 | $346 |
| Arthrex | 3 | $303 |
| Orthalign Inc | 1 | $27 |
| Innovation Technologies Inc | 1 | $24 |
| Abbott | 1 | $20 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $14 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 1 | $13 |
| Amgen | 1 | $12 |
| Wound Management Technologies, Inc | 1 | $5 |
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.
- DJO SURGICAL$2,712
- Comprehensive Shoulder System$600
- ACCOLADE$117
How this compares
$7,214 in reported general payments places this provider in the 55th percentile of 1,337 orthopaedic surgery providers in Texas.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Celecoxib | 105 | $2,426 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 263 | $2,344 |
| Gabapentin | 51 | $453 |
| Diclofenac Sodium | 13 | $328 |
| Meloxicam | 120 | $280 |
| Methylprednisolone | 28 | $212 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 56 | $154 |
| Pregabalin | 12 | $151 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery in Sugar Land
- Stephen BurkhartSan Antonio$185.3M
- Kirby HittTemple$9.1M
- J Richard EvansonPlano$8.1M
- Stefan KreuzerHouston$7M
- Robert GrahamAustin$6.3M
- Richard JonesDallas$6.3M
- Howard HarrisBedford$4.6M
- Tiffany HuynhHouston$4.6M
- Michael WirthSan Antonio$4.5M
- Stephen IncavoHouston$4.3M
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.