Ronald Cherry, MD
Pulmonary Disease · Sweetwater, TNNPI 1386613511
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
Almost everything reported here is food and beverage — 93.1% of the total across 77 separate payments, which is the pattern of a clinician who attends manufacturer presentations rather than one with a consulting arrangement. 17 manufacturers reported payments, led by GSK at 40.0% of the total. Reporting peaked in 2019 at $531 and has fallen 84.9% since, to $80 in 2023. That places this record below the midpoint for pulmonary disease clinicians in TN, where the typical reported total is $3,628.
Across 77 payments — averaging $15.09 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- GSK$465
- Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc.$113
- Boehringer Ingelheim$106
- Johnson & Johnson$90
- AbbVie$79
- Novartis$75
- plus $233 from 11 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$1,08293%
- Education$807%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| GSK | 40 | $465 |
| Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc. | 4 | $113 |
| Boehringer Ingelheim | 4 | $106 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 6 | $90 |
| AbbVie(2 entities) | 4 | $79 |
| Novartis | 5 | $75 |
| Philips North America LLC | 4 | $60 |
| Sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC | 1 | $31 |
| Mylan Specialty L.p. | 1 | $20 |
| Tactile Systems Technology Inc | 1 | $20 |
| ZOLL Services LLC (a/k/a ZOLL Lifecor Corp) | 1 | $17 |
| Bayer | 1 | $16 |
| Pfizer | 1 | $15 |
| Neotract Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Amarin Pharma, Inc. | 1 | $15 |
| Merck | 1 | $12 |
| AstraZeneca | 1 | $11 |
How this compares
$1,162 in reported general payments places this provider in the 30th percentile of 339 pulmonary 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 pulmonary disease in Sweetwater
- Lisa LancasterNashville$519K
- Krishnendu BhadraChattanooga$494K
- Aaron MilstoneFranklin$482K
- Otis RickmanNashville$392K
- Michael CzarneckiChattanooga$348K
- Susan GarwoodNashville$343K
- Girendra HoskereBristol$285K
- Carlos BaleeiroChattanooga$265K
- Joao DeandradeNashville$245K
- John SwisherKnoxville$234K
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.