The US Attorney’s Office announced that Dr. Jeffrey R. Carlson of Newport News, VA has agreed to pay $1.75 million to resolve allegations that he accepted kickbacks from SpineFrontier, Inc., a Massachusetts-based medical device manufacturer. Dr. Carlson, an orthopedic surgeon, is the sixth surgeon who has agreed to settle with the government relating to his interactions with SpineFrontier. In March, the government filed a False Claims Act complaint against SpineFrontier and its executives, alleging that SpineFrontier paid kickbacks to spine surgeons itself and through a sham third-party entity, Impartial Medical Experts, LLC, which was owned and controlled by SpineFrontier’s founder and CEO, Kingsley R. Chin.
As part of the settlement agreement, the government contends that Dr. Carlson received kickbacks in the form of sham consulting fees that he submitted through Impartial Medical Experts. Under the settlement agreement, Dr. Carlson admits that he estimated his purported consulting hours based on the number of times he used a SpineFrontier product in a given month, as opposed to tracking actual time he spent consulting. Dr. Carlson further admits that he cannot document the consulting hours he submitted for payment to SpineFrontier and Impartial Medical Experts. In addition, Dr. Carlson sought and received consulting payments from SpineFrontier for time he spent during his surgical procedures, for which Medicare and other federal health care programs were already paying him. Dr. Carlson also admits to accepting free meals from SpineFrontier, for himself and his surgical staff, on almost every day that he performed a surgical procedure with a SpineFrontier product. In total, SpineFrontier provided Dr. Carlson and his staff meals that cost thousands of dollars.
