Walter James, MD
Pulmonary Disease · Charleston, SCNPI 1093912545
Payments from drug & device makers
What this record shows
This record is dominated by consulting fees: $813 of the $1,035 with a category attached, or 78.5%. Merck accounts for 78.5% of it on its own, with 2 other manufacturers making up the rest. Reporting peaked in 2023 at $813 and has fallen 83.6% since, to $133 in 2025. That places this record below the midpoint for pulmonary disease clinicians in SC, where the typical reported total is $2,769.
Across 3 payments — averaging $345.06 each. Meals, travel, consulting and speaking fees, gifts and royalties reported by drug and device makers.
- Merck$813
- ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc.$133
- Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC$90
Across 7 payments — averaging $15,371 each. Payments tied to a research study. These frequently flow through the physician to a hospital or research institution rather than to the physician personally.
- Bristol Myers Squibb$42K
- Mallinckrodt Hospital Products Inc.$40K
- Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC$26K
What the payments were for
- Consulting fees$81378%
- Food & beverage$22322%
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Merck | 1 | $813 |
| ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 1 | $133 |
| Mallinckrodt Enterprises LLC | 1 | $90 |
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.
How this compares
$1,035 in reported general payments places this provider in the 30th percentile of 192 pulmonary disease providers in South Carolina.
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 PenAdalimumab | 86 | $970,049 |
| Humira(Cf) PenAdalimumab | 82 | $865,583 |
| Trelegy ElliptaFluticasone/Umeclidin/Vilanter | 89 | $65,769 |
| Tadalafil | 65 | $59,772 |
| Breo ElliptaFluticasone/Vilanterol | 69 | $36,241 |
| Mycophenolate Mofetil | 80 | $7,062 |
| Stiolto RespimatTiotropium Br/Olodaterol Hcl | 12 | $5,567 |
| MethotrexateMethotrexate Sodium | 301 | $4,144 |
| Albuterol Sulfate HfaAlbuterol Sulfate | 113 | $3,341 |
| SymbicortBudesonide/Formoterol Fumarate | 11 | $2,483 |
| Budesonide-Formoterol FumarateBudesonide/Formoterol Fumarate | 11 | $2,067 |
| Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate | 54 | $1,433 |
| Asmanex HfaMometasone Furoate | 12 | $1,367 |
| Azathioprine | 37 | $1,339 |
| Omeprazole | 76 | $1,336 |
Paid to pharmacies, not to this prescriber.
Other pulmonary disease in Charleston
- Patrick FlumeCharleston$418K
- Gerard SilvestriCharleston$254K
- Denise Gabrielle SeseCharleston$51K
- Timothy WhelanCharleston$41K
- Marc JudsonCharleston$28K
- John HugginsCharleston$18K
- John CoxCharleston$16K
- Adam FoxCharleston$13K
- Michael SpandorferCharleston$12K
- Rachana KrishnaCharleston$9K
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.