Merilda Blanco-Guzman, MD
Infectious Disease · Louisville, KYNPI 1962684993
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by food and beverage: $1,136 of the $1,368 with a category attached, or 83.1%. 12 manufacturers reported payments, led by Gilead at 39.8% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2022 at $507 and has fallen 73.5% since, to $135 in 2025.
Across 49 payments — averaging $27.92 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Gilead$544
- Shionogi Inc$313
- Insmed, Inc.$126
- Theratechnologies Inc.$102
- Astellas Pharma US Inc$65
- Mayne Pharma Commercial LLC$57
- plus $162 from 6 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$1,13683%
- Education$23217%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gilead | 24 | $544 |
| Shionogi Inc | 8 | $313 |
| Insmed, Inc. | 2 | $126 |
| Theratechnologies Inc. | 2 | $102 |
| Astellas Pharma US Inc | 1 | $65 |
| Mayne Pharma Commercial LLC | 3 | $57 |
| AbbVie | 3 | $52 |
| Viiv Healthcare Company | 2 | $32 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1 | $28 |
| Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Nabriva Therapeutics, PLC | 1 | $18 |
| Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $14 |
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.
- Biktarvy$123
How this compares
$1,368 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th percentile of 100 infectious disease providers in Kentucky.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Daptomycin | 22 | $6,395 |
| Vancomycin Hcl | 18 | $2,669 |
| CeftriaxoneCeftriaxone Sodium | 36 | $2,410 |
| Cefazolin Sodium | 14 | $591 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other infectious disease in Louisville
- Julio RamirezLouisville$256K
- Martin GnoniLouisville$194K
- Paul SchulzLouisville$189K
- Tariq MehmoodLouisville$75K
- Anupama RaghuramLouisville$9K
- Barbara WojdaLouisville$7K
- Benjamin KlausingLouisville$7K
- Kamran AkhtarLouisville$4K
- Forest ArnoldLouisville$4K
- Mark BurnsLouisville$3K
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.