A prominent Los Angeles-area sports medicine clinic has agreed to pay $3 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it received illegal kickbacks for referring patients to another healthcare provider. The Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic received kickbacks from HealthSouth Corp. in the form of stock-option grants, donations to the Kerlan-Jobe Foundation, loan forgiveness on an equipment lease, and a high ownership interest in an ambulatory surgery center owned by the two healthcare firms. In exchange, Kerlan-Jobe referred patients to HealthSouth facilities for medical care, federal prosecutors said.
