Frances Hughes, MD
Internal Medicine · Charleston, SCNPI 1588618615
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 620 payments — averaging $17.86 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Lilly USA, LLC$1K
- Pfizer$1K
- Novo Nordisk$1K
- AstraZeneca$847
- AbbVie$678
- Amgen$658
- plus $6K from 54 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$11,047100%
- Education$230%
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.
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
$11,071 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 1,498 internal medicine providers in South Carolina.
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 | 79 | $94,579 |
| EliquisApixaban | 62 | $61,083 |
| JardianceEmpagliflozin | 54 | $47,566 |
| FarxigaDapagliflozin Propanediol | 59 | $45,649 |
| MounjaroTirzepatide | 34 | $42,789 |
| JanuviaSitagliptin Phosphate | 48 | $40,896 |
| MyrbetriqMirabegron | 29 | $18,553 |
| Rosuvastatin Calcium | 543 | $10,432 |
| Duloxetine Hcl | 363 | $9,342 |
| LinzessLinaclotide | 13 | $8,869 |
| PremarinEstrogens, Conjugated | 15 | $8,231 |
| Atorvastatin Calcium | 459 | $6,798 |
| Breo ElliptaFluticasone/Vilanterol | 16 | $6,437 |
| SynthroidLevothyroxine Sodium | 89 | $5,759 |
| Levothyroxine Sodium | 444 | $5,414 |
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 | $1,039 | $94,57979 claims |
| PfizerEliquis, Premarin | $1,040 | $69,31477 claims |
| Boehringer IngelheimJardiance | $443 | $47,56654 claims |
| AstraZenecaFarxiga | $847 | $45,64959 claims |
| Lilly USA, LLCMounjaro | $1,126 | $42,78934 claims |
| MerckJanuvia | $68 | $40,89648 claims |
| Astellas Pharma US IncMyrbetriq | $99 | $18,55329 claims |
| AbbVieLinzess, Synthroid | $678 | $14,628102 claims |
| GSKBreo Ellipta | $496 | $6,43716 claims |
| Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLCLevothyroxine Sodium | $23 | $5,414444 claims |
| Hikma Pharmaceuticals USAEpinephrine | $13 | $2,05715 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 1,498 internal medicine providers in South Carolina.
Other internal medicine in Charleston
- Jan BasileCharleston$278K
- James ThomasCharleston$154K
- John CleekCharleston$136K
- Shakaib RehmanCharleston$94K
- Leonard AlsfeldCharleston$91K
- Samuel Schumann IiiCharleston$48K
- Brett TomashitisCharleston$36K
- Scott SandsCharleston$25K
- Laura KinneyCharleston$20K
- Andrew SchreinerCharleston$15K
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.