Surgical funding company MedStar has until Nov. 13 to comply with a judge’s order to produce information about payments it made for surgeries involving DePuy hips.
David Katz, a U.S. district judge in Toledo, Ohio, granted on Tuesday the motion requested by DePuy Orthopaedics Aug. 31, Reuters reports. DePuy is questioning whether Medstar inflated damage claims from 11 patients who were among the 8,000 plaintiffs in faulty hip replacement cases DePuy paid $2.5 billion to settle in 2013.
The company asked the federal court to compel the Texas surgical financer to turn over more information about liens it submitted to DePuy following the settlement. MedStar submitted the liens seeking repayment for 11 revision surgeries it funded for ASR hip patients with claims against DePuy.
DePuy agreed in the settlement to pay health insurers’ liens for replacement surgeries directly. MedStar submitted claims to DePuy for nearly $1.5 million for surgical bills it purchased on behalf of the 11 patients; DePuy argues the surgeries shouldn’t have cost more than $336,000, Reuters reported earlier.
Katz wrote in his decision that DePuy’s request for billing and payment information is necessary to assess the validity of the liens.
(Story By The Times Union)
