- $1 Million to the United States and participating states to resolve civil whistleblower allegations that the companies, by entertaining US-based physicians during a 2013 conference in France, violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and, through resulting claims to federal healthcare programs, the False Claims Act and similar state statutes; and
- an additional $1 Million to the United States to resolve related allegations that the companies violated the physician Open Payments Program (formerly known as the “Sunshine Act”) by failing to fully report those physician-entertainment expenses to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits medical device manufacturers from directly or indirectly offering or paying anything of value to induce the referral of items or services, such as device orders or purchases, covered by Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, or other federal healthcare programs. The federal settlement resolves allegations that Medicrea (which Medtronic USA Inc., recently acquired) provided items of value in the form of meals, alcoholic beverages, entertainment, and travel expenses to US-based physicians at events surrounding the Scoliosis Research Society’s September 2013 Congress in Lyon, France. The United States alleged that Medicrea provided the benefits to induce the physicians to purchase or order Medicrea’s spinal devices, and that this resulted in false payment claims to federal healthcare programs.
