Enrique Espinosa-Melendez
Nephrology · National City, CANPI 1881651156
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 99.6% of the total across 255 separate payments, which is the pattern of a clinician who attends manufacturer presentations rather than one with a consulting arrangement. It is spread thinly across 33 manufacturers, the largest accounting for just 19.6% — the pattern of someone who eats at a lot of different presentations. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $2,369 and has fallen 87.5% since, to $296 in 2023.
Across 255 payments — averaging $22.83 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Amgen$1K
- AstraZeneca$824
- Lilly USA, LLC$593
- Novo Nordisk$519
- Mannkind Corporation$289
- Fresenius USA Marketing, Inc.$271
- plus $2K from 27 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$60%
- Food & beverage$5,798100%
- Education$180%
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(2 entities) | 60 | $1,141 |
| AstraZeneca(2 entities) | 24 | $824 |
| Lilly USA, LLC | 20 | $593 |
| Novo Nordisk | 36 | $519 |
| Mannkind Corporation | 13 | $289 |
| Fresenius USA Marketing, Inc. | 6 | $271 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 11 | $234 |
| OPKO Pharmaceuticals, LLC | 11 | $210 |
| Amarin Pharma, Inc. | 8 | $200 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 4 | $184 |
| Vifor Pharma, Inc. | 7 | $158 |
| Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc. | 4 | $120 |
| Bayer | 5 | $118 |
| Medtronic | 3 | $117 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 6 | $115 |
| Novartis | 4 | $90 |
| Dexcom, Inc. | 4 | $85 |
| Merck | 3 | $72 |
| Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. | 3 | $70 |
| Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 3 | $62 |
| Regeneron Healthcare Solutions, Inc. | 3 | $56 |
| Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 3 | $49 |
| Akebia Therapeutics Inc | 4 | $43 |
| Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC | 1 | $27 |
| Travere Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $25 |
| Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. | 1 | $23 |
| Daiichi Sankyo Inc. | 1 | $21 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $21 |
| Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. | 1 | $20 |
| Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Pfizer | 1 | $17 |
| Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC | 1 | $15 |
| Abbott | 1 | $14 |
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
$5,822 in reported general payments places this provider in the 80th percentile of 1,341 nephrology providers in California.
Other nephrology in National City
- Anjay RastogiLos Angeles$2.2M
- Glenn ChertowStanford$2M
- Luis AlvarezPalo Alto$1.8M
- Jose MorfinSacramento$1M
- Rodolfo BatarseRancho Mirage$910K
- Vandana MathurWoodside$769K
- Yasir QaziOrange$618K
- Rafael VillicanaLoma Linda$610K
- Sunil PatelApple Valley$509K
- Suphamai BunnapradistLos Angeles$498K
Where these figures come from
- Payments: CMS Open Payments, program years 2019–2025 (publication P06302026_06032026).
- Identity: NPPES NPI Registry, July 2026.