In this episode, Reveal delves into the rampant fraud in California’s workers’ compensation medical system and the reasons it has been such an easy target for scammers.
screws
Pop quiz: Can you spot the real screw?
See if you can tell the difference.
Bogus screws ended up in spines of surgery patients
The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to ensure that medical equipment going inside people’s bodies is manufactured by companies approved by the agency, but there’s a fissure in the system.
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Dereliction of duty
In this episode of Reveal, we look at the power of a single photo, a VA doctor accused of handing out opiates to veterans like “candy” and surgery patients who got screwed out of legitimate medical hardware.
Medical firm profited on pain with knockoff spine surgery hardware
A California company accused of counterfeiting screws for spinal surgery went broke in 2013. But by then, it had sold millions of dollars in medical hardware to a nationwide network of surgeons.