SmartTRAK believes the billions of dollars of Medicare abuse already uncovered is the tip of the iceberg in services billed to Medicare via the Physician Fee Schedule.
In June, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action, which resulted in criminal charges against 193 defendants, including 76 doctors, nurse practitioners, and other licensed medical professionals in 32 federal districts across the US, for their alleged participation in various healthcare fraud schemes. Of these, four defendants were charged in a scheme involving amniotic tissue to treat chronic wounds.
Arrests were made at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport in June when two individuals attempting to flee the country were charged by the DOJ for defrauding Medicare over $900.0MM. According to the DOJ case summary, the two individuals “were charged by indictment with various counts of conspiracy, health care fraud, receiving kickbacks, and money laundering in connection with an alleged scheme to fraudulently bill Medicare $900 million for highly expensive amniotic allografts. The defendants targeted elderly Medicare patients, many of whom were terminally ill in hospice care, through their companies—Apex Mobile Medical LLC, Apex Medical LLC, Viking Medical Consultants LLC, and APX Mobile Medical LLC. “
SmartTRAK believes these charges are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the amount of fraud occurring in the US Market for Skin Substitutes. With a dramatic spike in Medicare claims in 2023, it’s clear widespread Medicare abuse has allowed the US Skin Substitute market to balloon, almost doubling in just one year! The abuse is primarily limited to amniotic tissue products, which held 52.5% of the US market in 2022 and 64.5% of the market in 2023.
In this downloadable article, SmartTRAK discusses in detail the DOJ investigation and its impact on the Skin Substitute market, including:
- SmartTRAK Financial Analysis of the Market
- The Impact on Established Market
- Potential Drivers for Change
- Criteria for Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Focused (MPFS) Players
- What Could Impact the Market
- What the Future Holds
Click the button below to download and read the complete "Skin Substitute Market Rocked by DOJ Investigations" article by Susan Paquette, SmartTRAK VP & General Manager, Wound.
SmartTRAK is the Medtech industry’s only global Insights-as-a-Service solution for the Orthopedics, Wound Care, Regenerative Medicine and Neuro Therapy markets. SmartTRAK’s propriety methodology turns disparate data from hundreds of sources into powerful insights customers can rely on as the trusted source for strategic decision-making. The SmartTRAK enterprise platform includes rich daily updates, comprehensive market coverage and simple-to-use tools and dashboards for market, product and financial analysis. Customers leveraging the SmartTRAK platform also have direct access to market experts for inquiries and advisory services. If you would like a demo of what SmartTRAK has to offer and see how we can help increase proficiency, improve productivity and reduce costs for your company, just click here.