Medtronic Settles Kickback and Open Payments Violations for $9.2M

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on October 29 that Medtronic USA Inc. agreed to pay $8.1 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and federal Anti-Kickback Statute by paying kickbacks to a South Dakota neurosurgeon to use Medtronic’s medical devices. Medtronic will pay an additional $1.11 million for violating the requirements of the Open Payments Program by failing to report the payments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The Open Payments Program, established under the Affordable Care Act, requires medical device manufacturers to report to CMS certain payments or other transfers of value to physicians. Medtronic allegedly paid for more than 100 social events at a Brazilian restaurant owned by the neurosurgeon to induce him to use Medtronic’s implantable SynchroMed II intrathecal infusion pumps for his patients.

DOJ’s press release noted that the surgeon and two of his companies are also defendants in a separate FCA lawsuit alleging that he received kickbacks to use certain implants in his spinal surgeries.