According to WorkersCompensation.com, yesterday, a neurosurgeon was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison for accepting approximately $3.3 million in bribes to perform spinal surgeries at a now-defunct Long Beach hospital. The facts occurred from 2010 to 2013, when the neurosurgeon accepted money from the owner in exchange for performing spinal surgeries at his hospital with different amounts depending on the type of spinal surgery. The neurosurgeon knew or was deliberately unaware that the payments were in exchange for bringing his patients’ surgeries to Pacific Hospital.
The owner of the hospital was sentenced in 2018 to 63 months in prison for the crimes of conspiring with doctors, chiropractors, and vendors to pay bribes in exchange for the referral of thousands of patients to Pacific Hospital for spinal surgeries and other medical services paid mainly to through the California workers’ compensation system.
During its last five years, the scheme resulted in the submission of more than $500 million in medical bills for spinal surgeries that involved bribery.