The march of legal settlements by important health care organizations continues, although now producing barely an additional ripple on top of the white-capped covered ocean of news and commentary roiled by the recent US election. However, even the latest small settlement is a reminder of all the problems that continue under the surface. (And I have now beaten this metaphor to death, sorry.)
The Settlement
As reported very briefly in NJ.com:
A company that monitors cardiac devices worn by heart patients has agreed to pay $1.3 million in civil fines to resolve allegations it paid kickbacks to doctors to persuade them to use their services, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
Mednet Healthcare Technologies, Inc. of Ewing, arranged ‘fee-for-service’ and ‘direct-bill’ agreements with certain hospital and physician customers for two services – event monitoring and telemetry – and charged them a fee, the office said.
But Mednet then allowed the physicians to directly bill Medicare for the same services, and keep any reimbursements they received that exceeded the fee that Mednet charged them.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s office contends Mednet set up the remuneration agreements so their medical customers would continue to send referrals to Mednet, and were illegal under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.
– naked capitalism