Kenneth Vargas, MD
Internal Medicine · Nashville, TNNPI 1639249774
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 815 payments — averaging $16.63 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Novo Nordisk$2K
- Pfizer$1K
- AbbVie$1K
- Amgen$1K
- Lilly USA, LLC$997
- AstraZeneca$855
- plus $6K from 47 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$13,555100%
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
$13,555 in reported general payments places this provider in the 95th percentile of 2,216 internal medicine providers in Tennessee.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| EliquisApixaban | 97 | $102,956 |
| MounjaroTirzepatide | 74 | $79,965 |
| OzempicSemaglutide | 59 | $77,253 |
| JanuviaSitagliptin Phosphate | 86 | $70,796 |
| CreonLipase/Protease/Amylase | 21 | $63,289 |
| FarxigaDapagliflozin Propanediol | 56 | $49,466 |
| GenvoyaElviteg/Cob/Emtri/Tenof Alafen | 12 | $48,622 |
| Trelegy ElliptaFluticasone/Umeclidin/Vilanter | 37 | $40,588 |
| JardianceEmpagliflozin | 15 | $20,053 |
| RybelsusSemaglutide | 17 | $19,514 |
| MyrbetriqMirabegron | 26 | $17,492 |
| InvokanaCanagliflozin | 16 | $12,424 |
| TrulicityDulaglutide | 12 | $11,749 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 378 | $9,143 |
| LinzessLinaclotide | 12 | $7,529 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| PfizerEliquis, Premarin | $1,322 | $109,972110 claims |
| Novo NordiskOzempic, Rybelsus | $2,211 | $96,76776 claims |
| Lilly USA, LLCMounjaro, Trulicity | $997 | $91,71486 claims |
| AbbVieCreon, Linzess, Synthroid | $1,045 | $74,32668 claims |
| MerckJanuvia | $468 | $70,79686 claims |
| AstraZenecaFarxiga, Brilinta | $855 | $54,19268 claims |
| GileadGenvoya | $79 | $48,62212 claims |
| GSKTrelegy Ellipta | $822 | $40,58837 claims |
| Boehringer IngelheimJardiance, Combivent Respimat | $353 | $25,29326 claims |
| Astellas Pharma US IncMyrbetriq | $444 | $17,49226 claims |
| Johnson & JohnsonInvokana | $119 | $12,42416 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 2,216 internal medicine providers in Tennessee.
Other internal medicine in Nashville
- John AndersonNashville$1.5M
- Nancy DavisNashville$985K
- Wayne RileyNashville$536K
- Paul FerrellNashville$413K
- Cyndya Shibao MiyasatoNashville$364K
- Hilary TindleNashville$337K
- Harvey BowlesNashville$203K
- Jay MontgomeryNashville$174K
- Temidayo AbeNashville$113K
- Nader BahriNashville$105K
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.