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Device companies accused of paying kickbacks

Device Regulation Alert: Safety, Compliance and Reimbursement News, August 18, 2008

Five medical device manufacturers are facing more allegations they paid kickbacks to physicians, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

The owners of Intermedics-McCullough, a Monroeville, PA, medical supply company, allege Zimmer, DuPuy Orthopedics, Biomet, Smith and Nephew, and Stryker Orthopedics used inferior devices and kickbacks to block Intermedics from the market. The suit also names more than 20 Pittsburgh-area physicians.

According to the suit, the five companies made more than 2,000 payments from 1988–2007 designed to induce physicians to use one company’s products rather than competitors’. The payments ranged in value from $100 to more than $8 million.

The five medical device companies entered into a settlement with the federal government in September 2007 to resolve allegations they induced physicians to use one company’s artificial hip and knee reconstruction and replacement products instead of another’s by providing financial incentives.

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