Orthopedic: industry payments
Drug and device makers reported $169,869 in payments to providers registered in this specialty across Open Payments program years 2019–2025.
- Providers
- 79
- Received a payment
- 79 (100.0%)
- Total reported
- $170K
- Average, those paid
- $2,150
The average is computed only over providers who received something, because including the 0 who received nothing would produce a number that describes neither group. Totals are dominated by a small number of large royalty and consulting arrangements; the typical payment in this specialty is far smaller than the average implies.
What Medicare pays orthopedic clinicians
Across 32 orthopedic clinicians who billed Original Medicare Part B in 2024, Medicare allowed $505,264 in total — an average of $15,790 each, of which $15,790 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.
By state
| State | Providers | Total reported | Per provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | 4 | $150,480 | $37,620 |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | $6,643 | $1,329 |
| California | 14 | $4,774 | $341 |
| New York | 11 | $2,898 | $263 |
| Florida | 3 | $1,002 | $334 |
| Ohio | 6 | $886 | $148 |
| Georgia | 1 | $571 | $571 |
| Colorado | 6 | $473 | $79 |
| Illinois | 3 | $428 | $143 |
| Minnesota | 3 | $392 | $131 |
| New Jersey | 4 | $357 | $89 |
| Texas | 5 | $206 | $41 |
| Oregon | 2 | $183 | $91 |
| Virginia | 2 | $142 | $71 |
| New Mexico | 2 | $127 | $64 |
| Massachusetts | 1 | $64 | $64 |
| Nebraska | 1 | $56 | $56 |
| Indiana | 1 | $43 | $43 |
| Arkansas | 1 | $42 | $42 |
| Alabama | 1 | $40 | $40 |
| Tennessee | 2 | $40 | $20 |
| Utah | 1 | $23 | $23 |