Ernai Hernandez Sanchez, MD
Internal Medicine · Houston, TXNPI 1184115347
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by travel and lodging: $5,334 of the $8,583 with a category attached, or 62.1%. Merz North America, Inc. accounts for 87.7% of it on its own, with 4 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2024 at $5,048 and has fallen 77.1% since, to $1,158 in 2025. Among internal medicine clinicians in TX with any reported payments, this total sits in the top 5% — high for the specialty, which is a reason to read the composition above rather than the number alone.
Across 58 payments — averaging $147.99 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Merz North America, Inc.$8K
- Revance Therapeutics, Inc.$674
- AbbVie$156
- Galderma Laboratories, L.p.$114
- Novo Nordisk$112
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$5,33462%
- Food & beverage$3,24938%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Merz North America, Inc. | 36 | $7,526 |
| Revance Therapeutics, Inc. | 14 | $674 |
| AbbVie | 4 | $156 |
| Galderma Laboratories, L.p. | 2 | $114 |
| Novo Nordisk | 2 | $112 |
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
$8,583 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 7,675 internal medicine providers in Texas.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Amoxicillin-Clavulanate PotassAmoxicillin/Potassium Clav | 11 | $77 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other internal medicine in Houston
- Hussein TawbiHouston$365K
- Hans LeeHouston$327K
- Tapan KadiaHouston$311K
- Nitin JainHouston$281K
- Krina PatelHouston$255K
- Nicholas ShortHouston$247K
- Naveen PemmarajuHouston$230K
- Mariana Chavez MacgregorHouston$188K
- Shumei KatoHouston$180K
- Sukhdeep BasraHouston$168K
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.