The U.S. Office of Inspector General issued a report stating the Medicare program often pays for physician services that are not performed post-surgery, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services responded it is in no position to immediately begin tracking all excess payments under these global codes.

The U.S. Department of Justice said the CEO of Spinefrontier Inc., Kingsley Chin, entered a guilty plea in connection with allegations that he made false statements about payments made to surgeons for consulting work the physicians did not perform.

In some ways, remote patient monitoring (RPM) came of age during the COVID-19 pandemic, but payers still worry about the potential for fraud and abuse. A recent report from the U.S. Office of Inspector General supported concerns about fraud and abuse with RPM, a problem CMS will have to address to constrain unnecessary and potentially illicit spending.

Azon Medical LLC, a supplier of medical products such as durable medical equipment, is on the hook for slightly more than $1 million for promoting the P-Stim device as eligible for Medicare coverage.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced May 29 that Innovasis Inc., of Salt Lake City and two of the company’s executives have agreed to pay $12 million over allegations of payment of kickbacks to surgeons.

Companies that buy other companies know perfectly well that they may acquire a few headaches in the process, but recent enforcement trends are making the acquiring companies more careful about acquisitions. Regulatory attorney Jennifer Bragg told an audience at this year’s meeting of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) that the smarter companies are doing their due diligence before approaching the target company, an exercise that could ultimately dissuade the would-be acquirer of the wisdom of the transaction.