WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — St. Jude
Medical Inc., a heart device manufacturer; Parma Community General
Hospital; and Norton Healthcare have paid the United States $3,898,300 to resolve false claim
allegations that St. Jude paid illegal kickbacks to two hospitals
to secure heart-device business, the Justice Department announced
today. The government alleges the kickbacks caused false claims to
be submitted to federal health care programs in violation of the
False Claims Act. The kickbacks included alleged rebates that were
“retroactive” and paid based on a hospital’s previous purchases of
St. Jude heart-device equipment and rebates that St. Jude paid for
purchases of heart-device equipment sold by its competitors to
induce purchases of similar equipment from St. Jude in the
future.
Under the terms of the settlement, St. Jude, headquartered in
St. Paul, Minn., will pay $3,725,000. Parma Community General
Hospital, located in Parma, Ohio,
is paying $40,000, and Norton
Healthcare in Louisville, Ky., is
paying $133,300. The government
asserted that Parma and Norton were recipients of improper
rebates from St. Jude.
“Hospitals should base their purchasing decisions on what is in
the best interests of their patients,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for
the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. “We will act
aggressively to ensure that choices about health care are not
tainted by illegal kickbacks.”
This action was initi
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