Southern California Public Radio, in a segment titled “Selling The Spine,” reports that over the last decade, California “and the rest of the U.S. have seen rapid growth in what are called Physician Owned Distributorships, or PODs, in the spinal device business.” A POD is a medical device business “in which a physician is an investor and a distributor – a salesman – of the parts.” These “physician investors can and do use the devices they sell in the surgeries they perform, and that creates a financial incentive to do more and at times unnecessary surgeries, critics argue.” The question is “whether physician investors in PODs are receiving payments in exchange for referring patients to hospitals that purchase devices those physicians distribute, which would be a criminal offense. ‘The fraud alert issued about PODs was very strongly worded, saying that they were very concerned with the use of PODs in the health care industry and the fact that it could ultimately drive up medical costs,’ said Troy Barksy, an attorney who spent 11 years at Health and Human Services’ Office of General Counsel.”
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
