55 of Medtronic's Best Hospital Friends, Including HCA, Settle for $34 Million

The case of the over-marketing of Kyphon's kyphoplasty device (look here) just got more complicated, and now appears to have involved an amazing number of players. The State of Play  As reported by the AP (via the Washington Post), Fifty-five hospitals in 21 states have agreed to pay $34 million to the U.S. government to settle allegations that they used more expensive inpatient procedures rather than outpatient spinal surgeries to get bigger payments from Medicare, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.The settlement involves kyphoplasty procedures used to treat spinal fractures usually caused by osteoporosis. It can be done as an outpatient procedure, but he Justice Department said the hospitals performed the surgeries as inpatient procedures to increase Medicare billings.The current media reports provided little detail about the allegations, but did note that this case has been litigated for a while, A similar settlement was reached last year, when 14 hospitals agreed to pay a settlement of more than $12 million. And in 2008, the Justice Department agreed to a $75 million settlement with Medtronic Inc.’s spine business. The government was investigating allegations that Kyphon, a company that had been acquired by Medtronic Spine in 2007, advised hospitals to do inpatient kyphoplasties to bulk up their Medicare payments.The PlayersPer the AP, there were quite a fewIn the latest settlement, the largest payments are being made by Atrium M...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: Medtronic HCA medical devices impunity Kyphon legal settlements mergers Source Type: blogs