Raul Vasquez Garagatti, MD
Infectious Disease · Knoxville, TNNPI 1518283522
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
The money is spread across several categories — speaking fees (59.8%), consulting fees and food and beverage — rather than concentrated in one kind of arrangement. La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company accounts for 68.7% of it on its own, with 7 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $5,609 and has fallen 97.6% since, to $136 in 2025.
Across 27 payments — averaging $321.93 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company$6K
- Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc.$2K
- Pfizer$178
- AbbVie$63
- Merck$45
- Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC$37
- plus $41 from 2 others
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$2,35927%
- Speaking & faculty fees$5,19860%
- Travel & lodging$340%
- Food & beverage$1,10113%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 16 | $5,969 |
| Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $2,359 |
| Pfizer | 3 | $178 |
| AbbVie | 1 | $63 |
| Merck | 2 | $45 |
| Salix Pharmaceuticals, A Division Of Bausch Health US, LLC | 2 | $37 |
| Portola Pharmaceuticals, LLC | 1 | $24 |
| Daxor Corporation | 1 | $17 |
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.
- Xerava$7,557
How this compares
$8,692 in reported general payments places this provider in the 85th percentile of 156 infectious disease 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.
Other infectious disease in Knoxville
- Simi VincentKnoxville$7K
- James WangKnoxville$2K
- John NarroKnoxville$2K
- Bryan WalkerKnoxville$2K
- Mark RasnakeKnoxville$1K
- Ernest KempKnoxville$1K
- John AdamsKnoxville$1K
- Michael GelfandMemphis$486K
- Kerry ClevelandMemphis$426K
- Mark PierceCookeville$246K
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.