A medical group known as Regenexx promoted by an Anesthesiologist acting as an Orthopedic Surgeon Chris Centeno, MD out of Colorado promises unproven stem cell procedure knee injections will help avoid knee surgery has created alliances with health insurance companies to promote supposed stem cell injections over traditionally accepted surgery options. The problem is they don’t always make this option elective but convey to patients it is mandatory.
The health insurance company saves1,000's if not 10's of $1,000's of dollars if Chris Centeno is given money to perform an injection of a person's own blood instead of surgery. The insurance company tells the patient they have to try the Chris Centeno injection first or they can't get the surgery. This way the insurance company can save as much as $50,000 and Chris Centeno and Regenexx get paid.
Chris Centeno is getting paid by insurance companies for what is commonly referred to as unapproved Stem Cell procedures. Insurance companies are saving money and the patients ultimately still are responsible for co-pays and out of pocket expense such as co-insurance. If this is not illegal, it certainly should be.
You can read about it here:
You can also read about Chris Centeno suing the FDA in 2010 for not having the authority to regulate stem cell procedures. Then you can read about the FDA suing Chris Centeno in 2014.
If you google anything about Chris Centeno and Regenexx, you will find Chris Centeno quoting the FDA and atacking any type of competition, while Chris Centeno is the one who the FDA went after. I don't know if there is a more dishonest doctor in Medicine than Chris Centeno.