Abiomed agrees to pay $3m to settle kickbacks allegations

Federal prosecutors said today that Abiomed (NSDQ:ABMD) agreed to pony up more than $3 million to settle allegations that it wined and dined physicians to induce them to use its Impella heart pump. The U.S. Justice Dept. said that Danvers-based Abiomed agreed to settle the allegations for $3.1 million after a whistleblower’s lawsuit – which is still under seal at the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts – accused the company of buying meals for doctors “at some of the country’s most expensive restaurants, including Menton in Boston, Nobu in Los Angeles, Spago in Beverly Hills, and Eleven Madison Park in New York City.” Abiomed managers approved the expenses for meals during which “attendees ordered alcohol in an amount inconsistent with legitimate scientific discussion” and allowed the physician’s spouses to attend some of them “even though the spouses had no legitimate business purpose for attending the meal,” the prosecutors alleged. The company also paid for numerous meals for which the per-person cost “well exceeded” Abiomed’s internal $150-per-person limit – in one case the per-person cost was $450, they alleged. And Abiomed employees allegedly misrepresented the number of attendees, listed them under fictitious names (“Mike Anesthesia” in one instance) and schemed to drive the reported per-person cost down by listing fictitious names for people who did not attend the meals, accord...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Cardiac Assist Devices Legal News Abiomed Source Type: news