Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine in California

Across 205 orthopaedic surgery of the spine clinicians in California who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $45,754,062 in total — an average of $223,191 each, of which $222,001 was for services and the rest for drugs administered in the office.

This is not a salary. The rest is what Medicare allowed for services these clinicians billed — Original Medicare fee-for-service only. It excludes Medicare Advantage, which now covers more than half of Medicare enrollees, along with Medicaid and every commercial insurer, so for most clinicians it is a fraction of their practice. It is also gross revenue: staff, rent, supplies and malpractice premiums all come out of it before anyone is paid. Anyone quoting a figure like this as physician pay is misreading it.