Trucking company Werner Enterprises alleged a spine surgery performed at Nassau University Medical Center lasted 16 minutes and was among unnecessary medical procedures performed as part of a scheme to inflate damages stemming from a 2022 vehicle crash, according to a July 21 third-party complaint filed in New York County Supreme Court.
The complaint named Hempstead, N.Y.-based Orthopaedics Spine & Sports Medicine, doing business as Total Orthopedics, and several physicians as third-party defendants. It alleged the defendants provided unnecessary procedures and surgeries to maximize billing and inflate the value of the underlying lawsuit. Werner brought claims including fraud, aiding and abetting fraud and violations of New York General Business Law Section 349, which deals with consumer protections and deceptive practices.
The filing alleged an unnecessary anterior cervical decompression and instrumented fusion was performed at East Meadow, N.Y.-based Nassau University Medical Center on July 11, 2024. The complaint described nine procedures associated with the surgery and alleged the total surgery time was 16 minutes.
The complaint also cited an anesthesia record listing the procedure/incision as beginning at 12:41 p.m. and ending at 2:23 p.m. The complaint based its 16-minute calculation on a 12:49 p.m. “time out” documented in nursing notes and a 1:05 p.m. endpoint for what it described as continuous intraoperative neuromonitoring.
Total Orthopedics denied the allegations and disputed Werner’s characterization of the surgery.
“Total Ortho denies the allegations in the third-party complaint. The complaint contains false allegations that are contradicted by the very records on which it relies. For example, the complaint claims that a surgery lasted only “16 minutes.” Yet the anesthesia record cited in the same complaint documents a procedure lasting one hour and forty-two minutes, while the intraoperative neuromonitoring report documents one hour and forty-one minutes of continuous monitoring. Ignoring these records while advancing such a serious allegation risks causing unwarranted reputational harm to one of New York’s premier orthopedic practices,” Total Orthopedics said in a statement to Becker’s.
Total Orthopedics has had a contract with NUMC to operate its orthopedics department since 2007, according to the complaint. The filing also alleged its spinal surgeon staff and spinal surgeries were under internal investigation at NUMC and that the organization’s involvement in the department was being reduced.
The allegations in Werner’s complaint have not been established as fact by the court.
Becker’s has reached out to NUMC for comment and will update this story if more information becomes available.
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