Alfonso Blum
Internal Medicine · East Chicago, INNPI 1790810448
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 713 payments — averaging $16.45 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Amgen$2K
- Novo Nordisk$2K
- AbbVie$1K
- AstraZeneca$909
- Novartis$738
- Dexcom, Inc.$496
- plus $4K from 34 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$11,66099%
- Education$110%
- Gifts$591%
Most of this is food and beverage — typically meals provided during product presentations at a clinic or hospital. Nationally that is the single largest category of reported payments by count.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Amgen | 153 | $2,471 |
| Novo Nordisk | 128 | $2,025 |
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 92 | $1,192 |
| AstraZeneca | 43 | $909 |
| Novartis | 38 | $738 |
| Dexcom, Inc. | 30 | $496 |
| Lilly USA, LLC | 21 | $449 |
| Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. | 20 | $322 |
| Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC | 16 | $270 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 16 | $264 |
| Amarin Pharma, Inc. | 18 | $260 |
| Lundbeck LLC | 18 | $238 |
| Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 12 | $227 |
| Merck | 16 | $202 |
| Vifor Pharma, Inc. | 13 | $187 |
| Pfizer | 10 | $166 |
| Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 2 | $154 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 13 | $153 |
| Exact Sciences | 8 | $136 |
| Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. | 7 | $135 |
| Abbott | 6 | $109 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 5 | $87 |
| Mannkind Corporation | 3 | $84 |
| Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA | 3 | $53 |
| Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 2 | $53 |
| Gilead | 3 | $47 |
| Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 1 | $42 |
| Bayer | 2 | $33 |
| Alkermes, Inc. | 2 | $32 |
| GSK | 2 | $27 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $27 |
| Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Nestle Healthcare Nutrition Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Sanofi Pasteur Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Almatica Pharma LLC | 1 | $16 |
| Edwards Lifesciences | 1 | $15 |
| Corcept Therapeutics | 1 | $15 |
| Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc | 1 | $14 |
| Eyevance Pharmaceuticals LLC | 1 | $13 |
| Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc | 1 | $12 |
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
$11,731 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 1,747 internal medicine providers in Indiana.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| OzempicSemaglutide | 85 | $121,428 |
| TradjentaLinagliptin | 95 | $111,046 |
| VascepaIcosapent Ethyl | 67 | $59,115 |
| ProliaDenosumab | 20 | $33,937 |
| RybelsusSemaglutide | 23 | $29,368 |
| XareltoRivaroxaban | 24 | $23,939 |
| EliquisApixaban | 18 | $22,969 |
| EntrestoSacubitril/Valsartan | 15 | $22,597 |
| JanuviaSitagliptin Phosphate | 13 | $21,703 |
| FarxigaDapagliflozin Propanediol | 16 | $16,107 |
| Repatha SureclickEvolocumab | 28 | $15,362 |
| Insulin Lispro Kwikpen U-100Insulin Lispro | 44 | $15,326 |
| Basaglar Kwikpen U-100Insulin Glargine,hum.Rec.Anlog | 25 | $13,872 |
| Fiasp FlextouchInsulin Aspart (Niacinamide) | 13 | $13,730 |
| MounjaroTirzepatide | 12 | $13,606 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Companies that both paid and supply prescribed drugs
These companies both reported payments to this provider and make drugs the provider prescribed under Medicare Part D in 2024. For most specialties this overlap is expected — a cardiologist who is paid by a cardiology drugmaker also treats heart disease. It is shown so the reader can see it, not because it implies anything on its own.
| Company | Paid to this provider | Part D cost of their drugs |
|---|---|---|
| Novo NordiskOzempic, Rybelsus | $2,025 | $150,796108 claims |
| Boehringer IngelheimTradjenta | $264 | $111,04695 claims |
| AmgenProlia | $2,471 | $33,93720 claims |
| Johnson & JohnsonXarelto | $87 | $23,93924 claims |
| PfizerEliquis | $166 | $22,96918 claims |
| NovartisEntresto | $738 | $22,59715 claims |
| MerckJanuvia | $202 | $21,70313 claims |
| AstraZenecaFarxiga | $909 | $16,10716 claims |
| Lilly USA, LLCMounjaro | $449 | $13,60612 claims |
| GSKArexvy, Shingrix | $27 | $6,90128 claims |
Reading this fairly. The Part D column is what drug plans and patients paid pharmacies — this provider received none of it, and it reflects how many patients they treat and what those drugs cost. Against peers, this provider's reported payments sit in the 95th percentile of 1,747 internal medicine providers in Indiana.
Other internal medicine in East Chicago
- Robert BuynakValparaiso$24.2M
- Mohammed AllawNewburgh$3.6M
- Raj VuppalanchiIndianapolis$3.4M
- Phillip TothIndianapolis$3.2M
- George CornettFranklin$1.3M
- Ajita NarayanLafayette$951K
- Abhinav SinghGreenwood$738K
- Georgiann LinnemeierIndianapolis$692K
- Wa'el BakdashAnderson$625K
- Rita SchmidSouth Bend$599K
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.