A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against EBI LLC (dbaBiomet Spine, Bone Healing Technologies and Biomet Inc) who are accused of paying kickbacks to induce use of its bone growth stimulators and billing federal health care programs for refurbished stimulators.
The whistleblower's share of the settlement has not been determined.
The whistleblower originally filed this case in April of 2009. In the government's case aganst the Biomet companies, they alleged that, from 2001 to 2008, EBI paid staff at doctors’ offices to influence doctors to order its bone growth stimulators. These payments were allegedly provided pursuant to personal service agreements with staff members. The United States concluded that these payments violated the Anti-Kickback Act and resulted in false billings to various federal health care programs, including Medicare. The settlement also resolves EBI’s disclosure that it received federal reimbursements for bone growth stimulators that had been refurbished.
