Fourteen hospitals have agreed to pay over $12 million to resolve allegations that they overbilled Medicare for a minimally invasive procedure used to repair spinal fractures called kyphoplasty.  Although the procedure can safely be performed in an outpatient setting, the fourteen hospitals settling today and more than twenty five earlier-settling defendants elected to perform the procedure through more costly inpatient admissions, allowing them to maximize their Medicare billings.

In 2008, Kyphon, the manufacturer of kyphoplasty kits, paid $75 million to settle allegations that it encouraged hospitals to conduct the procedure on an inpatient basis.  The fraudulent scheme was brought to the government’s attention by two former employees of Kyphon.  The whistleblowers will receive $2.1 million from this settlement.

Read the press release, “Fourteen Hospitals to Pay U.S. More Than $12 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Related to Kyphoplasty”