MIAMI (AP) — Federal health officials issued a rare warning Tuesday about doctors’ ownership of shares in medical device companies that allow them to profit from performing surgeries with those products.

The Depart of Health and Human Services’ inspector general said the increasingly common practice is “inherently suspect” and may violate anti-kickback laws, according to the special fraud alert. The agency has only issued a handful of these national fraud alerts in the past 20 years and the warning sends a strong message to doctors, medical device distributors, hospitals and others in the medical industry.

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