The Health and Human Services inspector general said these commercial ventures, which are widespread in the fields of orthepedic and spine surgery, are “inherently suspect.”
The Wall Street Journal: Warning Over Doctor-Run Groups
A federal agency issued a special fraud alert about physician-owned distributorships—commercial entities run by doctors that have proliferated in the fields of orthopedic and spine surgery—calling them “inherently suspect” and warning they “pose dangers to patient safety” (Carreyrou, 3/26).
Bloomberg: Doctor-Owned Device Suppliers Deemed Inherently Suspect
Doctor-owned businesses that act as middlemen between medical device makers and hospitals are “inherently suspect” and some of their practices may violate U.S. anti-kickback laws, a government inspector general said. Daniel Levinson, the inspector general for the Health and Human Services Department, today issued an unusual “special fraud alert” about so-called physician-owned distributorships, or PODs (Wayne, 3/26).