Kris Ghosh returned home to Hawaiʻi in March 2023 to take a medical sales job and care for his ailing parents, a retired doctor and nurse. Ghosh hoped to use the skills as a seasoned sales rep. Instead, he quickly got a bird’s-eye view of what he says were crooked deals involving one of the world’s largest medical device makers — and, after he tried to blow the whistle, a pink slip.

Ghosh says medical device and pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories wrongly fired him after he began internally reporting what he says were illegal kickbacks meant to entice clinics in Hawai‘i to use the company’s equipment for outpatient procedures. Ghosh has laid out his allegations in a federal whistleblower complaint against Abbott.

The beneficiary of Abbott’s alleged improper largesse was Pacific Vascular Institute, which operates six outpatient facilities in Hawaiʻi, including offices on Maui and Hawaiʻi island, where access to vascular care is scant. Pacific Vascular is not named as a defendant in Ghosh’s lawsuit.

The crux of Ghosh’s complaint is that Abbott and a Minnesota-based subsidiary violated a federal Anti-Kickback Statute by illegally inducing Pacific Vascular to use Abbott devices and equipment in procedures, known as atherectomies, to unblock leg arteries. Ghosh also alleges that Abbott’s actions constituted violations of the federal False Claims Act.

Regardless of whether Abbott violated any laws, the lawsuit highlights the explosive growth nationally of outpatient...

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