Valencia Wells
Optometrist · Birmingham, ALNPI 1659504504
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (31.4%), food and beverage and travel and lodging — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. 10 manufacturers reported payments, led by Alcon at 48.5% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $1,647 and has fallen 54.5% since, to $750 in 2025. Among optometrist clinicians in AL with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 10% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 31 payments — averaging $154.19 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Alcon$2K
- Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.$1K
- Coopervision Inc.$750
- Bausch & Lomb Americas Inc.$154
- Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc.$144
- Oyster Point Pharma, Inc.$115
- plus $194 from 4 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$75016%
- Speaking & faculty fees$1,50031%
- Travel & lodging$1,06222%
- Food & beverage$1,41230%
- Gifts$561%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alcon | 11 | $2,318 |
| Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. | 7 | $1,105 |
| Coopervision Inc. | 3 | $750 |
| Bausch & Lomb Americas Inc. | 2 | $154 |
| Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. | 2 | $144 |
| Oyster Point Pharma, Inc. | 1 | $115 |
| Glaukos Corporation | 1 | $103 |
| Carl Zeiss Meditec AG | 2 | $39 |
| Biotissue Holdings Inc. | 1 | $35 |
| Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. | 1 | $17 |
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.
How this compares
$4,780 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th percentile of 749 optometrist providers in Alabama.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tobramycin-DexamethasoneTobramycin/Dexamethasone | 21 | $914 |
| Latanoprost | 21 | $688 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other optometrist in Birmingham
- Kelly NicholsBirmingham$231K
- Leo SemesBirmingham$60K
- Andrew PuckerBirmingham$27K
- Ashley SavageBirmingham$9K
- Ami EpsteinBirmingham$8K
- Caroline PateBirmingham$6K
- Casey BrownBirmingham$5K
- Nicholas OnkenBirmingham$5K
- Mark SchaefferHoover$470K
- Benjamin KachelmanFlorence$101K
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.