Field Sentenced for Bone Stimulator Medicare Fraud

What does getting caught defrauding Medicare of more than $250, 000 get you?

For Derrick Field, it got him two years of probation and five months of home confinement. Field also has to pay a fine of $4, 000 and forfeit $40, 000. While the sentence doesn’t seem overly harsh, Field is probably done selling medical devices involving Medicare reimbursements.

Field is the former Orthofix, Inc. manager who pled guilty in March 2012 to falsifying patient medical records by forging the records. Field created phony medical chart notes, describing patient visits that did not occur and altered the physicians’ actual chart notes by inserting false diagnoses and descriptions of the patients’ medical history. Field did this in connection with more than 100 Medicare claims, causing Medicare to pay Orthofix for orders that did not meet program guidelines. Field also admitted to lying to the company’s legal department about his actions.

Field did this to rack up sales for bone growth stimulator medical devices made by Orthofix. The stimulators are used to assist patients with bone fractures that did not heal properly.

U.S. District Court Joseph L. Tauro handed out the sentence in Boston on January 9, 2012.

Others Guilty

Field wasn’t the only former Orthofix employee involved in this case.

In April 2012, Thomas Guerrieri pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks while he was a company vice president. In December 2011, Mitchell Salzman also pleaded guilty to making a false declaration before a grand jury or court. Michael Cobb, a former physician’s assistant in Rhode Island, was sentenced to six months in prison in July 2012, followed by two years of supervised release and pay $10, 000 in forfeiture for accepting the kickbacks.

Michael McKay and Brian Racey, former territory managers for Orthofix, pleaded guilty in 2012 to health care fraud.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said after the sentencing, “Health care fraud not only drains valuable taxpayer resources, it drives up overall health care costs and victimizes some of our nation’s most vulnerable members of society, including the elderly and disabled. In the District of Massachusetts, we have worked tirelessly to combat health care fraud and will continue to hold corporations and individuals accountable.”

Orthofix settled the case with the government in the middle of December by agreeing to pay approximately $43 million to resolve all civil and criminal matters and be subject to a five-year probation period, during which time the company must continue to comply with the terms of its previously executed Corporate Integrity Agreement.