Medical device company Covidien has agreed to pay $17.5 million for violations of the False Claims Act by providing free or discounted practice development and market development support to physicians in California and Florida to induce purchases of Covidien products, the Department of Justice announced on March 11.
The United States alleged that Covidien violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and, correspondingly, the False Claims Act by providing practice development and market development support to healthcare providers located in California and Florida from Jan. 1, 2011, through Sept. 30, 2014, to induce those providers to purchase ClosureFAST radiofrequency ablation catheters that were billed to Medicare and to the California and Florida Medicaid programs.
