|Updated Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 9:24 am CT
BLOOMINGTON, MN — A Bloomington-based lens company will be penalized more than $43 million after a federal civil jury sided with prosecutors and a whistleblower, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.
Precision Lens and its owner, Paul Ehlen, paid illegal kickbacks to ophthalmic surgeons in exchange for products that would be reimbursed by Medicare, according to prosecutors.
Ehlen and his company's actions violated the federal False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute, the jury agreed Tuesday.
In the course of the kickback scheme, Precision Lens filed 64,575 false claims to Medicare between 2006-2015, authorities said.
Whistleblower Kipp Fesenmaier originally brought the civil lawsuit and will receive a percentage of the money awarded at trial.
According to prosecutors, Precision Lens and Ehlen provided kickbacks to physicians in various forms, including:
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