Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1220364
13 ORTHOPEDICS 8 DOJ investigations into illegal kickbacks in orthopedics in 2019 By Alan Condon H ere are eight Department of Justice investigations into fraud in orthopedics this year: 1. Daniel Capen, MD, was sentenced to 30 months in prison aer pleading guilty to conspiracy and receiving kickbacks at the now defunct Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, Calif. 2. Life Spine and two executives agreed to pay about $5.99 million to resolve the federal government's allegations that they violated the False Claims Act. e lawsuit was brought by a private whistleblower before the government intervened. 3. e DOJ filed a complaint arguing that former Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health neurosurgeon Wilson Asfora, MD, profited from performing "aggressive, unnecessary surgeries" and implanting devices from a company he had owner- ship in. Sanford terminated Dr. Asfora's employment in September and agreed to settle the whistleblower lawsuit for more than $20 million. 4. Prosecutors are arguing that Michael Rimlawi, MD, should not be granted a new trial aer he was convicted for his role in a $40 million kickback scheme at the now-defunct Forest Park Medical Center in Dallas. 5. e DOJ charged three Oklahoma- based physicians, including an orthopedic surgeon, with violating the anti-kickback statute for their role in a scheme dating back to November 2012. e physi- cians are accused of accepting bribes to prescribe compounding drugs from OK Compounding in Skiatook, Okla., One Stop Rx in Tulsa and NBJ Pharmacy and Airport McKay Pharmacy in Houston. 6. Orlando, Fla.-based Conway Lakes Health & Rehabilitation Center and orthopedic surgeon Kenneth Krumins, MD, agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle anti-kickback violation allegations. 7. e DOJ charged 24 individuals — in- cluding three licensed medical profes- sionals — in connection with an alleged kickback scheme involving durable medi- cal equipment braces. e individuals were accused of advertising telemedicine services to Medicare beneficiaries that would allow them to obtain DME braces; the call centers involved allegedly paid kickbacks to the telemedicine companies, which paid kickbacks to physicians to write the prescriptions. e scheme cre- ated more than $1.2 billion in losses for Medicare. 8. Brandon Claflin, DO, paid $84,666 to settle allegations he accepted illegal kickbacks from OK Compounding in exchange for writing prescriptions. n Physician-owned Ohio group opens spine, orthopedic facility By Alan Condon A kron, Ohio-based Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Dec. 3 for its new facility in Jackson Township, Ohio, The Suburbanite reported. Three things to know: 1. The facility features two spine surgeons and eight or- thopedic surgeons. 2. It provides the full spectrum of orthopedic care, includ- ing spine services, total joint replacement and sports medicine. It also offers reconstructive and plastic surgery. 3. CCOC performs more than 15,500 surgeries annually, according to its website. n Rothman New York adds 2 physicians By Eric Oliver N ew York City-based Rothman Orthopae- dics New York added neurosurgeon Mi- chael Smith, MD, and orthopedic spine surgeon Grigoriy Arutyunyan, MD, to its staff. Dr. Smith earned his medical degree from Charlottesville-based University of Virginia School of Medicine. He completed a residency at Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylva- nia and a fellowship at London-based National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Dr. Arutyunyan completed a residency at Roch- ester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic. He completed a spine fellowship at UC San Francisco and an orthopedic oncology fellowship at New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. n