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Puerto Rico: Kidney docs turned patients away in price-fixing scheme

By  |  March 1, 2013

A price-fixing case against kidney doctors in Puerto Rico initiated by the Federal Trade Commission has come to a settlement, according to reports. The FTC brought charges against the doctors, alleging they had colluded with a Humana Inc health plan to raise reimbursement rates; when those demands were not met, the doctors reportedly refused to treat patients of Humana. It was a scheme that resulted in at least one case of a patient being turned away to another hospital suffering from critical renal failure, said the FTC. According to reports, the settlement prohibits the eight doctors – who make up 90 percent of the nephrologists in southwestern Puerto Rico – from colluding with health insurers and refusing to treat patients.

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