Raul Romea, MD
Rheumatology · Walnut Creek, CANPI 1962408112
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 375 payments — averaging $20.06 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Amgen$2K
- AbbVie$915
- Pfizer$656
- Aurinia Pharma U.S., Inc.$429
- Novartis$416
- UCB, Inc.$398
- plus $3K from 30 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$7,42599%
- Education$981%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Amgen(2 entities) | 106 | $2,003 |
| AbbVie | 49 | $915 |
| Pfizer | 37 | $656 |
| Aurinia Pharma U.S., Inc. | 20 | $429 |
| Novartis | 20 | $416 |
| UCB, Inc. | 17 | $398 |
| Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC | 16 | $365 |
| E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.L.C. | 15 | $303 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 11 | $214 |
| GSK | 9 | $180 |
| Octapharma USA, Inc. | 7 | $177 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 5 | $173 |
| Genentech USA, Inc. | 8 | $165 |
| AstraZeneca(2 entities) | 6 | $158 |
| Sanofi | 6 | $131 |
| Bristol Myers Squibb | 9 | $111 |
| Medexus Pharma, Inc. | 4 | $89 |
| Radius Health, Inc. | 3 | $77 |
| Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC | 3 | $62 |
| Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA | 3 | $53 |
| Abbott | 2 | $48 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 2 | $41 |
| Sandoz | 2 | $41 |
| United Therapeutics Corporation | 2 | $40 |
| Bayer | 2 | $38 |
| Madrigal Pharmaceuticals | 1 | $32 |
| Mannkind Corporation | 1 | $29 |
| Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals International, PLC | 1 | $26 |
| Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc. | 1 | $23 |
| Kyowa Kirin, Inc. | 1 | $22 |
| Medtronic | 1 | $21 |
| Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. | 1 | $19 |
| Biocon Biologics Inc | 1 | $19 |
| Antares Pharma, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| Lilly USA, LLC | 1 | $14 |
How this compares
$7,523 in reported general payments places this provider in the 60th percentile of 808 rheumatology providers in California.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Humira(Cf) PenAdalimumab | 69 | $542,639 |
| Enbrel SureclickEtanercept | 45 | $366,095 |
| XeljanzTofacitinib Citrate | 25 | $185,651 |
| Cosentyx SyringeSecukinumab | 13 | $97,106 |
| Cosentyx Sensoready PenSecukinumab | 13 | $96,754 |
| EnbrelEtanercept | 12 | $85,862 |
| Orencia ClickjectAbatacept | 12 | $68,908 |
| OtezlaApremilast | 24 | $68,194 |
| Teriparatide | 19 | $46,395 |
| Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate | 548 | $18,430 |
| MethotrexateMethotrexate Sodium | 348 | $10,120 |
| Prednisone | 436 | $4,425 |
| Leflunomide | 81 | $2,921 |
| Gabapentin | 147 | $2,448 |
| Celecoxib | 102 | $2,389 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| PfizerXeljanz | $656 | $185,65125 claims |
| AmgenEnbrel, Otezla | $2,003 | $154,05736 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 60th percentile of 808 rheumatology providers in California.
Other rheumatology in Walnut Creek
- Anthony PadulaWalnut Creek$536K
- Samy MetyasCovina$12.9M
- Christine ThaiHuntington Beach$8.5M
- Tien-I SuWhittier$8.4M
- Eric LeeUpland$6.9M
- Orrin TroumSanta Monica$6.9M
- Shirley PangFullerton$5.7M
- William RobinsonStanford$5.1M
- Dan laTujunga$5.1M
- Christina Charles-SchoemanLos Angeles$4.8M
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.