DePuy Hires Third Party To Facilitate ASR Recall
DePuy Orthopaedics has taken an unusual approach to handling the ASR recall. Reportedly, the company has hired Broadspire Services, a third party company that manages workers’ compensation and medical claims on behalf of insurance companies and employers, to oversee the claims for costs associated with the defective device. This differs from standard corporate practice, which is for the company to handle such administration itself.
Using outside help has received mixed reactions from industry insiders. The arguments for the approach are financial. Johnson & Johnson, DePuy’s parent company, and DePuy can keep their focus on developing medical devices and not waste time and resources catering to those claiming they suffered harm from the failure of their ASR. Additionally, a third party company like Broadspire is more likely to handle such claims efficiently since that is its business.
On the other hand, the ethics of the process are muddied when one considers that it will be Broadspire’s physicians, rather than patients’, who will determine whether to pay for surgery for patients who require hip replacement without court intervention. Industry professionals are reasonably calling the independence of these doctors that are on Broadspire’s payroll into question. Although, DePuy has maintained that there is no such conflict and describes the role of the Broadspire physicians as “benign.”
Is This The Proper Way To Handle The ASR’s Failure?
Back in August of 2010 when DePuy finally decided that it would listen to the experts who were claiming the ASR was a defective device and pull it off the market, the people who received the device suffered enough stress. Now, the company is putting them in a position where even the physicians looking over their cases may be conflicted. Anyone who does not get the thumbs up from Broadspire’s physician for his or her hip replacement surgery will surely wonder if he or she should be going in for surgery anyway.
If you have experienced a failure of your ASR hip replacement device, then you could have the right to compensation in a DePuy ASR lawsuit. The attorneys at the Rottenstein Law Group have been practicing product liability law for a collective 25 years and have the necessary expertise to assert your rights in court. For a free consultation with an RLG attorney, please fill out this brief contact form.