Providers across the country have been billing more frequently for neurostimulator implantation, a surgical procedure for patients with chronic pain. The problem is, they may not actually be doing it.
Within the last 2 years, the Department of Justice has prosecuted more than a dozen cases involving fraudulent billing of P-Stim, a type of auricular electroacupuncture device used to treat chronic and acute pain.
P-Stim devices -- which are vastly different from implantable neurostimulators -- are small, battery-operated instruments that providers attach behind a patient's ear. Small needles are inserted inside the ear, and the device transmits recurrent electric pulses to the patient for approximately 4 days until it's removed.
Auricular electroacupuncture devices have been on the U.S. market for years. But these devices have never been approved by the FDA, and hard evidence doesn't yet exist as to whether they're effective for patients with chronic pain.
Despite uncertainty about the benefits of auricular electroacupuncture, providers across the country are still using it -- and have allegedly defrauded the federal government out of millions of dollars. Some investigators say the false claims cases around P-Stim devices are an example of a scheme to profit off of expensive therapies and exploit federal healthcare programs.
'A Universe of Schemes'
The federal government has litigated at least 15 false claims cases involving auricular electroacupuncture devices within the...
The Department of Justice has charged over 450 people in health care fraud schemes totaling a record $6.5 billion. A Coos Bay man was charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connect...