Bradley J. Schlozman, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri
said a federal jury found Kennedy Igbokwe of Nigeria guilty of health care fraud, money laundering and other offenses. Igbokwe, who owns and operates Cardinal Healthcare in Kansas City (obviously not to be confused with Cardinal Health), bribed two doctors to falsely verify that Medicare beneficiaries were so disabled that they needed motorized wheelchairs. Igbokwe then submitted numerous fraudulent claims to Medicare for power wheelchairs. After receiving approximately $4,000 from Medicare for each of these claims, he then provided some Medicare beneficiaries with a less expensive scooter instead, or in some instances, no type of power wheelchair or scooter at all.
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August 30, 2006
Related topics:
Legal & legislative, Ethics & Scandals
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California issued a warrant for seizure of Alaris Signature Edition Gold infusion pumps, model numbers 7130, 7131, 7230 and 7231 at the
FDA's request. The seizure of about 1,300 units valued at $1.8M overall was executed by U.S. Marshals at Alaris' manufacturing facility in San Diego, California on August 25 because of a "key bounce" design defect that may cause over-infusion of medications. Cardinal Health
announced (pdf) it suspended production, sales, repairs and installations. On August 15 a field corrective action had been initiated by the manufacturer which is also testing a reduction of the keypad's sensitivity. About 140,000 Alaris SE pumps have been distributed worldwide in 12 years. There is no product recall at this point. The FDA is accusing Cardinal of not respecting medical device manufacturing regulations even though it had issued warning letters as early as August 1998 and October 1999 outlining violations.
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August 28, 2006
Related topics:
Product Recalls, Medical Devices & Products
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