Ortho Surgeon Sentenced to 2+ Years for Spinal Cap Scheme

An Orange County orthopedic surgeon has been sentenced for his role in the “Spinal Cap” kickback scheme.

Orthopedic surgeon David Hobart Payne, M.D. was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $20,000, and to forfeit $316,597 in ill-gotten gains.

Earlier this year a federal jury found Dr. Payne guilty of accepting over $315,000 in bribes and kickbacks. Dr. Payne was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, two counts of honest services wire fraud, and one count of use of an interstate facility in aid of bribery.

The Spinal Cap scheme involved a number of other individuals including Michael Drobot. Drobot owned Long Beach, California-based Pacific Hospital. Per the Department of Justice press release, Drobot conspired with “doctors, chiropractors, and marketers to pay kickbacks and bribes in return for the referral of patients to Pacific Hospital for spinal surgeries and other medical services.” In the last five years of the scheme, over $500 million in spinal surgery medical bills involving kickbacks were submitted. Drobot paid Dr. Payne bribes of “up to $15,000 for each spinal surgery that he performed at Pacific Hospital.”

In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors wrote, “Bribe schemes like [Dr. Payne’s] cause an insidious harm that lingers for years, leaving victim-patients wondering whether their surgeries were necessary or whether the unethical doctors and hospital executives who treated them as commodities also agreed to implant substandard medical hardware in their bodies.”

To this date, 24 people have been convicted for their roles in the Spinal Cap scheme. For OTW’s previous coverage of the Spinal Cap scheme, see “Ortho Surgeon Convicted In ‘Spinal Cap’ Scheme,” “Accountant Sentenced in Spine Surgery Kickback Scheme,” “Ortho Surgeon Sentenced To 15 Months in Prison,” “The Taxman Cometh for Spinal Cap Crooks,” “Spine Surgeons Pleading Guilty in Spinal Cap Investigation,” and “More Cases Emerge From FBI’s California ‘Spinal Cap’ Investigation.”