Azon Medical agreed to pay $1 million to resolve liability under the False Claims Act for alleged improper billing of P-Stim neurostimulators, the U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Between September 2016 and October 2016, the company allegedly sold the neurostimulators as reimbursable by Medicare under a code used for implantable neurostimulator devices, according to a Sept. 19 news release.
Those codes are intended for surgically implanted devices, but Azon's P-Stim (also branded as AnSiStim) are applied with an adhesive and a limited amount of needles without surgery, anesthesia or the help of a surgeon. Medicare doesn't reimburse for acupuncture or acupuncture devices like AnSiStim or similar devices.