Becker's ASC Review

66 ORTHOPEDICS Maryland spine group physicians named defendants in alleged $3.5M kickback scheme indictment By Alan Condon T hree physicians affiliated with Rock- ville, Md.-based National Spine & Pain Centers have been named as defen- dants in a $3.5 million kickback scheme that allegedly ordered unnecessary genetic tests for Medicare and Medicaid patients, e Orange County Register reported July 21. Proove Biosciences founder and President Brian Javaade Meshkin was arraigned July 12 in a California district court on multiple charges that include conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and making illegal payments. e indictment also named three former Proove Biosciences executives as co-con- spirators: Steven Samuel Fichtelberg, Kirt omas Pfaff and Bruce Walter Gardner. e company allegedly offered pharmacoge- netic tests intended to determine a patient's risk of abusing opioids and how patients metabolized certain drugs, the report said. e alleged scheme paid pain management physicians kickbacks ranging from $100 to $150 for each test ordered for Medicare and Medicaid patients Proove, under the direction of Mr. Meshkin, allegedly submitted about $45 million in Medicare claims for genetic tests that were "tainted by illegal kickbacks," according to the indictment, with CMS paying the company about $20 million between 2013 and 2017. Defendants concealed the scheme by dis- guising the bribes as clinical research fees, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged. National Spine & Pain Centers representa- tives allegedly said they would stop ordering Proove's genetic tests until it was paid overdue kickbacks, according to the report. In a March 2016 email, Mr. Meshkin seemed to suggest that the issue could be resolved if the practice ordered more tests. "We get a ton of emails about payment from you guys, but your volume keeps going down. It's down 50 percent from last month," Mr. Meshkin allegedly stated in the email, according to e Orange County Register. "Fiy percent reduction in volume is com- pletely unacceptable from our standpoint. If we could spend a little more time working on performance and volume, everything would work more effectively." In August 2019, National Spine & Pain Cen- ters and another pain management group in Virginia paid the Justice Department $3.3 million to settle allegations that they illegally billed for medical services as if they were provided by physicians, when they were actually performed by physician assistants and nurse practitioners. n Orthopedic surgeon in legal battle with Adena joins competing system By Alan Condon B rian Cohen, MD, an orthopedic surgeon previously employed with Adena Health System, is now practicing with Columbus- based OhioHealth, according to the Chillicothe Gazette. Five notes: 1. Dr. Cohen and two other orthopedic surgeons filed a countersuit against Adena in May, alleging that the Chillicothe, Ohio-based health system retaliated against them and breached their employment contracts. 2. Adena previously sued the surgeons, alleging they breached their contracts by pushing other physicians to resign. The surgeons filed a motion to dismiss Adena's suit, claiming it does not have viable cause to support the allegations. 3. Dr. Cohen, a specialist in robotic-assisted knee and hip replace- ments, is practicing at five OhioHealth locations and performing sur- gery at Grove City (Ohio) Methodist Hospital and OhioHealth Bone and Joint Center at Grant in Columbus, according to the report. 4. He is the former medical director of The Adena Bone and Joint Center in Chillicothe. 5. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Cohen has performed more than 30,000 orthopedic surgeries and treated more than 100,000 pa- tients, according to his website. n Bioventus to acquire spine company for $518M By Carly Behm B ioventus has entered an agreement to acquire Misonix for $518 million in a cash-and-stock transaction. Once the transaction closes, Misonix will operate under Bioventus. The deal is expected to acceler- ate Misonix's BoneScalpel and Nexus adoption and extend its international access. The acquisi- tion will also augment Bioventus' lower extremity offerings and commercial footprint. "We believe this acquisition will accelerate our growth opportunities, enhance our double- digit revenue growth and provide a significant opportunity for long-term margin expansion," Bioventus CEO Ken Reali said in a July 29 news release. "The combination with Misonix will create significant value for our shareholders and enable us to better serve our customers with more com- prehensive solutions and a broader portfolio." Bioventus said it expects the acquisition to add almost $80 million in revenue in 2021. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. n

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