The Industry Veteran is back on his preferred way to make a buck in health care

Another whistle-blower makes good, this time on the device side of health care manufacturing.  It appears that Medtronic pays spinal surgeons upwards of a half million dollars a year in bogus consulting arrangements (e.g., for eight days of work during the year) if these payees agree to use the benefactor’s products.  What brightens the career prospects for whistleblowers in this suit is the fact that the plaintiff is not a scientist, a physician, a sales rep, an MSL or any of the usual types within either the clinical or the business operations.  The woman here worked as a travel agent for Medtronic, in which capacity she arranged accommodations for the bribed surgeons.  Her duties made her privy to the occasions where the amorality of business managers intersect with the usual conditions of gross immorality and psychopathic narcissism among physicians.  The news here is encouraging.  The day might dawn where the greed-is-good, corporate, fiduciary officers and the my-son-the-genius-doctors will have to fear their own admin assistants, office managers, temps, and maintenance workers.  Well, probably not, but at least the possibility brings a smile.