Medical Devices and Wearables

To celebrate the opening of Rivkin Radler’s first Florida office, we’ll cover some recent Florida frauds. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on April 20 that two Miami residents, Dean Zusmer and Lawrence Alexander, were sentenced to prison for their roles in a Medicare fraud scheme. Zusmer, a chiropractor, and Alexander, an orthopedic surgeon…

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced a settlement with a Missouri neurosurgeon and his fiancée regarding alleged violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) and Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS). The parties agreed to pay $825,000 to settle the case.

The neurosurgeon and his fiancée were accused of receiving impermissible kickbacks from spinal implant companies…

Rivkin Radler’s Michael Sirignano authored an article for the March 2 issue of the New York Law Journal entitled “Healthcare Fraud Tops DOJ’s Annual False Claims Act Report – Again!” The article discussed a report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice detailing the settlements and judgments it obtained under the federal False…

For those who just can’t get enough fraud, here are some of the “leftovers” from this edition of Fraud Week that your editor thought noteworthy.

Read about a pharmacy biller’s fake copay assistance scheme:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/woman-convicted-billing-claims-part-65-million-pharmaceutical-coupon-fraud

Genetic testing kickback schemes

In TX: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/laboratory-owners-and-executives-charged-health-care-kickback-scheme

In FL: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ocenture-llc-and-carelumina-llc-settle-allegations-false-claims-unnecessary-genetic-testing

And here’s a big one in GA: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/lab-owner-convicted-463-million-genetic-testing-scheme-defraud-medicare

DME kickback…

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on January 20 that DePuy Synthes, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, agreed to pay $9.75 million to resolve allegations that it entered into a kickback scheme with an unnamed Massachusetts orthopedic surgeon. DePuy admitted that from 2013 to 2018, it gave the surgeon instruments and implants worth…

Federal and state enforcement activity involving pharmacy fraud tops the list of categories in this edition of Rivkin Rounds’ Fraud Week. We’ll list just a sampling of cases.

On October 19, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Jerry May Keepers of Kingswood, Texas was sentenced to 36 months of supervised probation for writing…

In a recent blog post, Fitbit unveiled three new devices in its product line. One of the newly debuted watches, the Sense 2, includes an atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection algorithm that recently received FDA clearance.

The AFib detection technology relies on a photoplethysmography (PPG) optical heart-rate sensor that reads the heart rhythm of its…

If our most recent Fraud Week post (NY Chiropractor Billed for Non-Existent Acupuncture Services) didn’t already drive home the point, it is worth emphasizing that billing insurers for items or services that weren’t actually provided is always a bad idea.

On August 4, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Ariel Madero…

On September 28, Rivkin Radler’s Jeff Kaiser will be a panelist at the Practising Law Institute’s program, Life Sciences 2022: Navigating Legal Challenges in Drug and Device Industries. The program is designed for attorneys and allied professionals who counsel pharmaceutical and life sciences companies.

Entitled “Enforcement Trends Impacting the Drug and Device Industries,” Jeff’s…