Wright Medical Technology Agrees to Pay US $7.9 Million Settle Anti Kickback Prosecution and Re-establish Ethical Marketing Efforts For Knee and Hip Replacements

The company will be monitored for 5 years as the case revolved around the use of consultants they hired to sell their products.  The article states they have agreed to amend their ways of business to ensure kick back situations do not arise in the future.  They are not the first knee and hip replacement company to be brought to the table as DePuy and Zimmer are a couple of others in the same knee and hip business. 

With all this action going on with various companies it sure makes one think there was a lot of activity in this area with getting products in use by surgeons and hospitals.  I have not heard about a corporate integrity agreement before but they have one here for the next 5 years reporting to U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi as the monitor.  This is somewhat refreshing to see ethics coming back into the picture here too, or at least as stated in this case. 

An interesting side note when looking a their website and I am seeing this more often on websites for medical devices is information to help doctors code, something that was on a few websites in the past but growing.  BD

Wright Medical Technology Inc. agreed to pay $7.9 million to resolve U.S. criminal and civil investigations into whether it paid kickbacks to induce doctors to use its hip and knee devices.

Prosecutors in Newark, New Jersey, today charged Wright with conspiring to violate a federal anti-kickback statue through consulting contracts with orthopedic surgeons. The U.S. agreed to drop the case in 12 months if a monitor agrees that Wright has reformed the way it hires consultants.

Wright Medical Technology to Pay $7.9 Million to U.S. - Bloomberg

Technorati Tags: Write Medical,hip replacement,knee replacement,healthcare,medical devices,surgery,DOJ,FDA,lawsuit

Reactions: