Biotronik settles fraud case for $4.9M
The device maker Biotronik agreed to pay $4.9 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged the company’s cardiac rhythm business committed fraud by “improperly inducing” cardiologists and electrophysiologists to implant its devices in patients.
The lawsuit contended that between 2006 and 2011 Biotronik employees or distributors gave expensive meals or paid membership fees to physicians in Nevada and Arizona who used or switched over to its pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators or cardiac resynchronization therapy devices. According to the lawsuit claims, the company failed to provide proper documentation of specific work provided.
The federal government charged that Biotronik “knowingly caused false claims for the implantation of CRDM [cardiac implantable] devices to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid by the facility at which the implant occurred.”
Biotronik denied the charges, which were considered a violation under the False Claims Act. The settlement was not an admission of liability.
Most of the $4.9 million will be paid as a federal settlement, with $200,000 earmarked for Medicaid settlement. Whistleblower Brian Sant, a former Biotronik employee, will receive $840,000.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the agreement Nov. 6.