Interventional device developer C. R. Bard has agreed to pay the U.S. government $48.2 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that its urological division and ProSeed subsidiary paid doctors and hospitals kickbacks to entice them to order Bard's products at inflated prices to treat Medicare patients with prostate cancer.
The lawsuit alleged that from 1998 to 2006 Bard inflated the costs of the seeds sold to treat Medicare patients, using a portion of its profits to pay for kickbacks. By paying kickbacks, Bard caused false and inflated claims to be submitted to Medicare, which is a violation of the False Claims Act, according to the lawsuit.
The company's nationwide brachytherapy sales force would customize kickback offers after assessing a customer's financial needs, according to Peter Chatfield, a Washington, DC, attorney with Phillips & Cohen, who represented whistleblower Julie Darity, a Bard employee for 18 years.
Chatfield alleged that Bard offered doctors kickbacks, such as unrestricted "grant" money, rebates, advertising campaigns, and free medical equipment, to induce them to buy Bard's brachytherapy seeds at inflated prices.
Darity complained about the kickbacks to her supervisors and through the company's internal compliance system to no avail before filing the lawsuit, according to Chatfield.
