BALAJI CHARLU, MD appears in the CMS NPPES registry as a Pain Medicine Physician provider holding MD credentials at 22 CORPORATE PLAZA DR, NEWPORT BEACH, CA, 92660, with a listed phone of (949) 722-7038. NPI 1609980432 was issued on 08/18/2006. Because NPPES data is self-reported by the provider and refreshed monthly, the address, phone, and specialty reflect what CHARLU most recently submitted to CMS rather than a vetted directory listing, which is why patients should always confirm the practice is still at this location before scheduling.

Medicare Part D records for calendar year 2023 show 1,182 prescription claims written by this provider, covering 428 Medicare beneficiaries and totaling roughly $21K in drug spend, with an opioid prescribing rate of 30.8%. These figures capture only Medicare Part D — commercial insurance, Medicaid, and cash-pay prescriptions are not included, and any drug-beneficiary cell under 11 is suppressed by CMS for patient privacy. On the CMS Merit-based Incentive Payment System, this provider earned a Final Score of 83.648/100 for the 2023 performance year (Quality 94.961, Cost 54.7315), compared with the national average of 83.1.

Pain Medicine Physician is a narrow specialty nationwide, with 951 enrolled providers across 49 states and an average of 2,078 Part D claims per prescriber, so the context for interpreting these metrics differs meaningfully from a primary-care baseline. Important: PlainDoctor is a directory of publicly available government data, not medical advice, a malpractice database, or a quality rating. Inclusion here does not imply a recommendation, and absence of complaints or sanctions on this page does not mean none exist — always verify credentials through the NPPES NPI Registry, your state medical board, and the ABMS or AOA before making healthcare decisions.