Wala Abusalah, MD
Nephrology · Knoxville, TNNPI 1578034161
Payments from drug & device makers
Across 8 payments — averaging $33.12 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Aurinia Pharma U.S., Inc.$115
- AstraZeneca$30
- Calliditas Therapeutics US Inc.$25
- Merck$24
- La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company$19
- Baxter Healthcare$19
- plus $33 from 2 others
What the payments were for
- Food & beverage$265100%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Aurinia Pharma U.S., Inc. | 1 | $115 |
| AstraZeneca | 1 | $30 |
| Calliditas Therapeutics US Inc. | 1 | $25 |
| Merck | 1 | $24 |
| La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company | 1 | $19 |
| Baxter Healthcare | 1 | $19 |
| Ossur Americas, Inc. | 1 | $18 |
| AbbVie | 1 | $15 |
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.
- LUPKYNIS$115
How this compares
$265 in reported general payments places this provider in the 15th percentile of 229 nephrology 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.
Most prescribed under Part D
| Drug | Claims | Cost to plans & patients |
|---|---|---|
| Cinacalcet Hcl | 79 | $16,937 |
| Potassium Chloride | 40 | $819 |
| Rosuvastatin Calcium | 82 | $691 |
| Nifedipine ErNifedipine | 42 | $571 |
| Calcitriol | 44 | $471 |
| Carvedilol | 58 | $354 |
| Bumetanide | 16 | $325 |
| Pantoprazole Sodium | 21 | $241 |
| Losartan Potassium | 19 | $232 |
| Amlodipine Besylate | 80 | $232 |
| Prednisone | 43 | $231 |
| Pravastatin Sodium | 16 | $139 |
| Ezetimibe | 15 | $113 |
| Atorvastatin Calcium | 26 | $101 |
| Sulfamethoxazole-TrimethoprimSulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim | 12 | $80 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other nephrology in Knoxville
- Kendra HendonKnoxville$1.1M
- Ross NesbitKnoxville$452K
- Gerald BorrelliKnoxville$190K
- Denise RiversKnoxville$154K
- Urath SureshKnoxville$109K
- Jimmy GentryKnoxville$38K
- Erik WendlandKnoxville$34K
- Ritu KhannaKnoxville$12K
- Claude GalphinChattanooga$2M
- Wael HusseinMemphis$912K
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.