Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1242960
25 DEVICES & IMPLANTS DOJ alleges SpineFrontier bribed spine surgeons to use devices in $8M kickback scheme By Angie Stewart T he Department of Justice intervened in two whis- tleblower cases alleging that SpineFrontier illegally paid over $8 million in kickbacks to spine surgeons from October 2013 through December 2018. In complaints filed under the False Claims Act, the govern- ment accuses SpineFrontier, its executives and related en- tities of paying spine surgeons to use the company's med- ical devices and disguising those kickbacks as consulting fees for product evaluations. SpineFrontier founder and CEO Kingsley Chin, MD, is also the founder and principal owner of KIC Management Group and KICVentures. Those two entities own and operate SpineFrontier and Impartial Medical Experts, which prose- cutors allege was created for the sole purpose of shielding the "sham" consulting payments from government scrutiny. Dr. Kingsley, his wife and IME employee Vanessa Dudley, and SpineFrontier President and CFO Aditya Humad al- legedly portrayed IME as an independent, third-party entity but actually used it to bribe spine surgeons with kickbacks. Spine surgeons were allegedly paid about $500 for a cervical procedure and $1,000 for a lumbar procedure if they used SpineFrontier devices, even though SpineFrontier didn't sys- tematically collect or use feedback from those surgeons. Prosecutors accuse SpineFrontier of giving surgeons un- limited opportunities to receive these "consulting" pay- ments, as long as they used SpineFrontier devices. Previous employees originally filed the lawsuits under the False Claims Act's whistleblower provision. n Smith+Nephew CEO focusing on orthopedic ASC market: 11 things to know about Roland Diggelmann By Alan Condon S mith+Nephew CEO Roland Diggel- mann is approaching his sixth month as head of the medical device compa- ny and turning his attention to the growing orthopedic ASC market this year. Here are 11 things to know about Mr. Diggel- mann and his tenure as CEO so far: 1. For the fourth quarter of 2019, Mr. Diggel- mann's first quarter as CEO, Smith+Nephew reported $1.4 billion in revenue and $5.1 bil- lion for the full year. Fourth-quarter revenue increased 8.7 percent and full-year revenue rose 4.4 percent. 2. is year, he aims to boost the company's performance and continue its investment in the developing orthopedics segment in ASCs. 3. Smith+Nephew's operations have been im- pacted by the COVID-19 outbreak in China but expects the situation to normalize in the second quarter of 2020. China represented 7 percent of the company's revenue in 2019. 4. Mr. Diggelmann was appointed CEO of Smith+Nephew in November 2019, follow- ing in the footsteps of Namal Nawana, who held the position for almost two years. 5. As CEO, he began with a base salary of about $1.4 million. 6. e Swiss executive began his 25-plus year career in the medical device industry with AllPro AG, a manufacturer of artificial joints. 7. In 1997, he joined Sulzer Orthopedics, where he rose up the ranks from director of strategic planning and marketing to exec- utive vice president of sales in Europe and Asia Pacific. 8. Aer Sulzer Orthopedics, Mr. Diggelmann accepted a position at Zimmer — now Zim- mer Biomet — where he served as senior vice president of Europe, the Middle East and the African markets. 9. Before joining Smith+Nephew, he operat- ed as CEO of Roche Diagnostics, a company he spent 12 years at. He served as COO for seven years and CEO for three years, accord- ing to his LinkedIn profile. 10. Mr. Diggelmann also serves on several company boards, including reproductive ge- netics company Igenomix, heart screening company HeartForce AG and Accelerate Di- agnostics, a diagnostic company for bacterial infections. 11. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Berne in Switzerland. n