DePuy Paying Surgeons Cash for Copies of YOUR Medical Records

Astonishing news about what DePuy is willing to pay to get your medical records. A recent letter from DePuy offers to pay orthopedic surgeons $50.00 for every medical release their ASR patients sign and return.  With over 91,000 ASR patients out there, that means DePuy is willing to pay out more than $4.5 MILLION dollars to get their hands on these medical releases.  Here’s an excerpt from that letter:

We will provide you with a brief form to be completed for each patient, including date of surgery, components implanted, follow up status and the results of any metal ion testing. We appreciate your assistance with this process, and we will provide compensation at a rate of $50 per patient for each completed form that is submitted to DePuy. 

The medical release allows DePuy to have complete access to your PRIVATE and CONFIDENTIAL medical information.  DePuy can use this information to build a case against you if you ever decide to file a lawsuit over the recalled ASR hip implants.  DePuy even states in the letter that they’ll use your medical information to process your hip recall claims.

Most people develop a strong bond with their doctors based on trust and medical authority.  By working through the doctor-patient channels, DePuy is leveraging that relationship to get access to information that should be highly protected.  Without an attorney’s advice, many ASR hip recall patients may end up unknowingly signing their rights away to DePuy.

So while $4.5 million dollars may sound like a lot of money to help “process claims efficiently,” it’s also a good investment to mitigate the longer-term legal and financial damages from a product that DePuy admits is defective.
If you have a recalled DePuy ASR Hip implant, it’s important that you get legal advice about your rights and have a medical product liability attorney represent your interests when dealing with a medical device corporation such as DePuy.  They have attorneys working for them.  So should you.

You can read and download the entire letter sent to DePuy’s customers here:  Depuy paying $50 per patient to surgeons for medical releases.