AKRON, Ohio, June 4 /PRNewswire/ — Working with an
internal whistleblower, Attorney Warner
Mendenhall, the Law firm of McLaughlin and McCaffrey, LLP,
and Assistant United States Attorneys Alex
Rokakis and Michelle Heyer
have worked for four years to expose False Claims by St. Jude
Medical, Inc. a cardiac device manufacturer.
As a result of the investigation, St. Jude has agreed to return
$3,898,300 to the federal government
to settle the allegations that St. Jude paid illegal kickbacks to
hospitals to gain market share for its cardiac devices. The
whistleblower will receive $640,000
as a reward for his assistance to the
United States.
Warner Mendenhall stated that
“St. Jude’s marketing strategy interfered with the Doctors’
independent decision making. These types of incentives to gain
market share shortchange patient care options for doctors and
patients alike. These incentives have more to do with sales
than patient well-being.”
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,
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