Laurence James, MD
Internal Medicine · Sweetwater, TNNPI 1932587342
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 689 payments — averaging $14.43 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- GSK$1K
- Novo Nordisk$1K
- AbbVie$1K
- Lilly USA, LLC$813
- Amgen$637
- Pfizer$629
- plus $4K from 41 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$9,923100%
- 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.
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
$9,940 in reported general payments places this provider in the 90th 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 | 364 | $286,462 |
| MounjaroTirzepatide | 155 | $176,350 |
| OzempicSemaglutide | 131 | $137,816 |
| XeljanzTofacitinib Citrate | 13 | $87,203 |
| JardianceEmpagliflozin | 94 | $79,366 |
| Trelegy ElliptaFluticasone/Umeclidin/Vilanter | 91 | $78,755 |
| TrulicityDulaglutide | 69 | $69,593 |
| VraylarCariprazine Hcl | 29 | $49,316 |
| Dupixent SyringeDupilumab | 12 | $46,466 |
| JanuviaSitagliptin Phosphate | 41 | $42,300 |
| XareltoRivaroxaban | 38 | $39,380 |
| FarxigaDapagliflozin Propanediol | 40 | $34,887 |
| LinzessLinaclotide | 50 | $33,568 |
| MyrbetriqMirabegron | 44 | $27,186 |
| Toujeo Max SolostarInsulin Glargine,hum.Rec.Anlog | 27 | $21,942 |
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, Xeljanz | $629 | $373,665377 claims |
| Lilly USA, LLCMounjaro, Trulicity | $813 | $245,942224 claims |
| Novo NordiskOzempic | $1,244 | $137,816131 claims |
| Boehringer IngelheimJardiance, Stiolto Respimat, Tradjenta | $497 | $101,312135 claims |
| AbbVieVraylar, Linzess, Qulipta | $1,076 | $99,18492 claims |
| GSKTrelegy Ellipta, Breo Ellipta | $1,315 | $85,537105 claims |
| AstraZenecaFarxiga, Brilinta | $363 | $52,06761 claims |
| MerckJanuvia | $53 | $42,30041 claims |
| Johnson & JohnsonXarelto | $150 | $39,38038 claims |
| Astellas Pharma US IncMyrbetriq | $104 | $27,18644 claims |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLCLantus | $110 | $5,47722 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 90th percentile of 2,216 internal medicine providers in Tennessee.
Other internal medicine in Sweetwater
- Kenya KozawaSweetwater$86K
- Mark McKenzieChattanooga$11.9M
- Bernard GrunstraBristol$6.4M
- Jewel WhiteKingsport$5.7M
- Judith WhiteKingsport$5.6M
- Obadias MarquezOoltewah$2.8M
- Amanda Moore MillerKnoxville$2.3M
- Rick WhilesBristol$1.5M
- John AndersonNashville$1.5M
- David MorinKingsport$1.4M
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.