Melissa Merhege
Pain Medicine · Albuquerque, NMNPI 1003111873
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $4,423 of the $5,288 with a category attached, or 83.6%. Nevro Corp. accounts for 62.8% of it on its own, with 17 other manufacturers making up the rest.
Across 209 payments — averaging $25.30 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Nevro Corp.$3K
- Abbott$519
- Globus Medical$394
- AbbVie$288
- Medtronic$269
- Pfizer$82
- plus $415 from 12 others
What the payments were for
- Travel & lodging$86516%
- Food & beverage$4,42384%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nevro Corp. | 118 | $3,321 |
| Abbott | 17 | $519 |
| Globus Medical | 12 | $394 |
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 19 | $288 |
| Medtronic | 16 | $269 |
| Pfizer | 5 | $82 |
| Merz Pharmaceuticals, LLC | 3 | $75 |
| Alkermes, Inc. | 4 | $58 |
| Lundbeck LLC | 3 | $57 |
| Vertex | 3 | $48 |
| Nalu Medical, Inc. | 2 | $34 |
| SPR Therapeutics, Inc | 1 | $27 |
| Bioventus LLC | 1 | $25 |
| Boston Scientific | 1 | $23 |
| Stratus Medical, LLC | 1 | $21 |
| Vertos Medical, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. | 1 | $14 |
| Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 1 | $13 |
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
$5,288 in reported general payments places this provider in the 75th percentile of 36 pain medicine providers in New Mexico.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gabapentin | 46 | $697 |
| Methylprednisolone | 35 | $244 |
| Pregabalin | 21 | $170 |
| Hydrocodone-AcetaminophenHydrocodone/Acetaminophen | 20 | $162 |
| Tizanidine Hcl | 18 | $110 |
| Diazepam | 33 | $103 |
| Prednisone | 13 | $35 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other pain medicine in Albuquerque
- John WatkinsAlbuquerque$22K
- Craig RumbaughAlbuquerque$11K
- Eugene KoshkinAlbuquerque$10K
- Matthew BergstenAlbuquerque$7K
- Lauren HarrisAlbuquerque$6K
- Jeremy ChastainAlbuquerque$5K
- Joshu RaitenAlbuquerque$4K
- Thomas WhalenAlbuquerque$4K
- Matthew ValerianoAlbuquerque$4K
- Umar CheemaAlbuquerque$4K
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.