On January 2, 2013, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Abbott Laboratories (Abbott) agreed to pay $5.475 million to settle allegations that Abbott paid physicians kickbacks in exchange for influencing decisions to implant Abbott devices in patients in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA). Although Abbott made no admissions of liability, the DOJ’s press release explained the settlement is in resolution of allegations that Abbott knowingly arranged payments to physicians for teaching assignments, speaking arrangements, and conferences expecting that those physicians’ action would result in the implantation of the Abbott carotid, biliary, and peripheral vascular products in patients at the hospitals with which the physicians were associated.
The recent settlement announced by the DOJ resulted from a qui tam suit filed by two former Abbott employees, Steven Peters and Douglas Gray. Acting as whistleblowers and alleging violation of the FCA on behalf of the government, Peters and Gray claimed that Abbott’s payments made in exchange for physicians’ influencing hospitals to implant Abbott products in patients amounted to kickbacks in violation of FCA and in the submission of false claims to Medicare for procedures in which the Abbott products were used. Peters and Gray will share in the recovery of the government under the settlement, collecting a total of $1 million in damages for themselves.
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