Payments to Physicians From Manufacturers of Artificial Joints Continue
A federal criminal investigation settled last year placed a "temporary halt on the paychecks of several thousand doctors who were moonlighting as consultants" for medical device companies, but the "money is flowing again," the Chicago Tribune reports (Burns, Chicago Tribune, 10/26).
According to federal officials, four hip and knee replacement companies paid about $800 million to doctors from 2002 to 2006. Medical device makers Biomet, DePuy Orthopedics, Smith & Nephew and Zimmer Holdings last year agreed to pay a combined $311 million to settle a federal investigation over allegations that the companies paid kickbacks to doctors to recommend their products. As part of the settlement, the four companies were required to make their consulting arrangements with physicians public. A fifth company, Stryker Orthopaedics, cooperated early in the investigation and paid no fines but agreed to reveal its consulting arrangements (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/18).
Despite the settlement, "between buying out old contracts and inking new ones under stricter compliance standards," the amount paid by the companies to surgeons "could be bigger than ever," and critics "see trouble ahead for patients, who they say have no effective way of evaluating how the financial stakes shape their treatment," according to the Tribune. However, "even critics see a big difference between doctors demanding a kickback and those sharing in the profit from developing a new product or procedure," and to date "federal investigators have failed to spell out the extent of criminal activity in the hip and knee industry, leaving open the possibility that payola was the exception, not the rule," the Tribune reports (Chicago Tribune, 10/26).
