Surgeon’s Alleged Kickback Scheme Leads to $20 Million Settlement

A hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D., will pay $20 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it allowed a neurosurgeon to take kickbacks for using implantable devices obtained from a distributorship he owned, the Department of Justice said Oct. 28.

Sanford Health allegedly received warnings about the neurosurgeon’s scheme from colleagues at the hospital, but it continued to employ him and allow him to profit from the use of devices in which he had a financial interest, the government said.

The hospital also allowed the neurosurgeon to engage in medically unnecessary procedures using the devices, it said. Some of the ...