In two separate cases settled this week, Philips will pay the U.S. Department of Justice a total of about $29 million, resolving allegations of wrongdoing in its medical device sales.
The larger of the two settlements was announced by the DOJ on Thursday. It’ll see Philips RS North America, a subsidiary of the Dutch devicemaker that was formerly known as Respironics, pay the Justice Department more than $24 million.
In that case, the Pittsburgh-based durable medical equipment manufacturer was accused of paying kickbacks to suppliers of its products. According to the DOJ, Respironics sent illegal payments to its suppliers in return for their filing claims with government reimbursement programs—including Medicare, Medicaid and the military-focused Tricare—for ventilators, oxygen concentrators, CPAP and BiPAP machines and other respiratory devices.
The equipment maker also allegedly gave its suppliers free access to physician prescribing data that could help them tailor their marketing efforts to specific physicians.
In its settlement deal, Respironics agreed to pay $22.62 million to the federal government, plus another $2.13 million to certain states whose Medicaid programs were affected by the alleged kickback scheme. About $4.3 million of the government’s share will go to the former Respironics employee who filed a whistleblower complaint with the DOJ.
The Philips subsidiary also struck a five-year agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Under...
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