Willie Edwards, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine · Florence, SCNPI 1134129216
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by royalties or licence payments: $681,965 of the $687,406 with a category attached, or 99.2%. Degen Medical, Inc. accounts for 99.9% of it on its own, with 8 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $160,575 and has fallen 54.3% since, to $73,389 in 2025.
Across 77 payments — averaging $8927.34 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Degen Medical, Inc.$686K
- Medtronic$411
- Globus Medical$193
- Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated$104
- Boston Scientific$101
- Brainlab, Inc.$60
- plus $77 from 3 others
What the payments were for
- Royalty or licence$681,96599%
- Consulting fees$1,8000%
- Travel & lodging$1,6660%
- Food & beverage$1,9740%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Degen Medical, Inc. | 60 | $686,460 |
| Medtronic(2 entities) | 8 | $411 |
| Globus Medical | 2 | $193 |
| Pacira Pharmaceuticals Incorporated | 1 | $104 |
| Boston Scientific | 2 | $101 |
| Brainlab, Inc. | 1 | $60 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $47 |
| Intrinsic Therapeutics | 1 | $19 |
| Heron Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $11 |
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.
- Hyper-C$515,068
- Latitude-C$499,624
- F1 MPS$423,455
- Cyclops$418,967
- F1$191,582
- LAT-C$119,842
- CERVICAL AM$1,200
- Pulse$113
- INTELLIS ADAPTIVESTIM$111
- INTELLIS$109
- EXPAREL$104
How this compares
$687,406 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 32 orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in South Carolina.
See all orthopaedic surgery of the spine providers in South Carolina →
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Calcitonin-SalmonCalcitonin,salmon,synthetic | 14 | $859 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 88 | $613 |
| Tizanidine Hcl | 64 | $612 |
| Gabapentin | 29 | $197 |
| Methylprednisolone | 25 | $186 |
| Tramadol Hcl | 29 | $136 |
| Meloxicam | 19 | $53 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other orthopaedic surgery of the spine in Florence
- Rakesh ChokshiFlorence$727K
- Steven PolettiMt Pleasant$3M
- Donald JohnsonMt Pleasant$2.9M
- Gene MasseyMyrtle Beach$1.2M
- Ivan LamottaColumbia$299K
- Daniel ReidConway$152K
- Timothy BryanMt Pleasant$135K
- James AymondCharleston$91K
- Michael PeelleColumbia$77K
- Erkan AlciConway$75K
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.