$6 Million Settlement in Bone Growth Stimulators False Claims Act Suit

In another win for the HEAT (Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team) initiative, EBI, LLC, a medical device company in Parsippany, New Jersey, doing business as Biomet Spine and Bone Healing Technologies and Biomet, Inc., will pay $6 million to resolve allegations of violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Yu Yue, a former product manager for EBI, kicked off the investigation when she filed a qui tam suit in federal court in New Jersey. Yue’s share of the $6 million recovery has not yet been determined. The United States alleges that EBI paid staff at doctor’s offices through personal service agreements to influence doctors to order its bone growth simulator, which is used to repair slow to heal fractures. The United States determined the personal services agreements with physicians’ staff violated the Anti-Kickback Act, resulting in false billing to federal healthcare programs. Additionally, the $6 million settlement resolves allegations that EBI received federal reimbursement for bone growth simulators that had been refurbished.

The investigation was coordinated by the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, HHS-OIG, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigation.

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