A federal judge in St. Paul has ordered a medical products company and its owner to pay $487 million to settle allegations that it defrauded Medicare.
The judgment comes after nearly a decade of litigation that an industry whistleblower and the Justice Department brought against Precision Lens.
In 2013, Kipp Fesenmaier sued Sightpath, Precision Lens and a third company, TLC Vision, under the False Claims Act. Sightpath and Precision Lens are headquartered in the same building in Bloomington, Minn.
Fesenmaier worked for Sightpath, formerly Midwest Surgical Services, in the 1990s and early 2000s. The company provides equipment to eye surgeons who treat patients with cataracts and glaucoma.
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Among other things, Fesenmaier alleged that the Minnesota-based companies paid illegal kickbacks to doctors in exchange for their business and submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare.
The government reached a settlement with Sightpath and TLC in 2017, but the portion of the civil case involving Precision Lens went to trial earlier this year.
In February, a federal jury in St. Paul found that Precision Lens and its owner Paul Ehlen violated the False Claims Act and the federal Anti-Kickback law.
Siding with the government and Fesenmaier, jurors determined that Precision Lens sent physicians on...
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