On January 23, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Liberator Holdings and Rochester Medical Corporation agreed to pay $17 million to resolve allegations of violation of the False Claims Act. The government alleges that they violated the False Claims Act by “providing free samples and discounts to encourage urology practice groups to use Bard’s prescription form for prescribing intermittent catheters for their patients.”
According to the Department of Justice “between 2016 and February 2020, the Liberator Defendants provided discounts, excessive free samples, and cost savings for in-office supplies to urology practice groups to persuade those practices to use Bard’s own ‘Link .'”
These allegations are violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute.
“The use of inducements to influence a physician’s medical decisions undermines the important physician-patient relationship and interferes with the goal of doing what is best for the patient,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie, Jr. “Our office will coordinate with our federal and state partners to hold accountable those companies who violate federal law for financial gain.”
This case stems from a whistleblower, Dirk Etheridge a former employees of the 180 Medical, who filed a suit under the False Claim Act’s qui tam provision which allows a private citizens to file lawsuits alleging government contracting fraud on behalf of the United States. In successful qui tam cases, whistleblowers are eligible to receive...
violated the False Claims Act, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. . . . Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and develop...