Device Makers Have Funneled Billions to Orthopedic Surgeons Who Use Their Products
While fines for violating anti-kickback laws reach into the millions, profitable device makers may see that as the cost of doing business, says prof
Dr. Kingsley R. Chin was little more than a decade out of Harvard Medical School when the sales of his spine surgical implants took off.
Chin has patented more than 40 pieces of such hardware, including doughnut-shaped plastic cages, titanium screws, and other products used to repair spines generating $100 million for his company, SpineFrontier, according to government officials.
Yet SpineFrontier’s success arose not from the quality of its goods, these officials say, but because it paid kickbacks to surgeons who agreed to implant the highly profitable devices into hundreds of patients.