The stories of bad conditions and treatments at NMC can sound downright ghoulish. Here are some well-known examples:

• At a Delaware NMC facility, Medicare officials discovered cigarette butts contaminating the solution that technicians used to clean dialysis equipment;
• In the mid 1990s, one NMC patient was dialyzed with a cleaning solution. This process killed him. Health inspectors later uncovered numerous violations of health and safety rules at the facility;
• Another plant, in Rockleigh, New Jersey, failed to sterilize its blood filters and left residue on dialysis products that later injured at least four different patients.

Dialysis Industry Consolidation

In 1996, the German company Fresenius AG purchased NMC. This new enterprise, Fresenius Medical Company (FMC), proceeded to expand and rack up year after year of record profits. By the end of 2011, Fresenius owned over 1,800 dialysis clinics throughout North America, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of its $12.8 billion annual global revenue.

The industry’s “free market” has gotten considerably less free over the years. In the 1990s, the competitive landscape was relatively diverse. Companies like Liberty Dialysis, Vivra, Renal Advantage, Renal Care Group, and Gambro all competed for business. By 2013, just three companies — Fresenius, DaVita, and TCI Dialysis — controlled the lion’s share (and then some) of the American dialysis market.

A Breathtaking Disregard for the Law and for Common Decency

Fresenius has repeatedly demonstrated a propensity to act above the law – and to weather the legal consequences without much of a shrug.

• In 2000, the U.S. Justice Department settled a qui tam case with Fresenius pertaining to allegations of fraud that lasted from 1987 to 1997. The settlement – for $486 million – was, at the time, the biggest settlement for health care fraud in United States history.
• In 2007, several insurance companies sued FMC for urging physicians to do “unnecessary and sometimes dangerous medical procedures” and for unfairly taking $100 million worth of money from insurers.
• In March 2010, a District Court in Tennessee hit Fresenius (and Renal Care Group) with over $82 million in damages for disregarding Medicare regulations and limiting patients’ health care options.
• In 2012, FMC pled guilty to multiple counts of Medicare fraud and paid nearly $1.7 million in penalties. That suit concerned a different dialysis drug, Epogen, and allegations of billing fraud.

If you are outraged about the behavior of FMC, and you believe that you or a loved one suffered as result of GranuFlo treatment, call Davis & Crump at 800-277-0300 for a free case evaluation.