Whistleblower Costs DFine $2.39 Million for Kickbacks (written by Walter Eisner @ OTW)
A whistleblower has struck San Jose, California-based DFine Inc.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on October 26 that DFine Inc. has agreed to pay $2.39 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the company paid kickbacks to "induce physicians to use certain of the company's devices."
The government said DFine paid physicians up to $500 per patient to participate in customer surveys known as User Preference Evaluations (UPE). Each UPE survey required use of a new DFine device in a patient. Thus this was an "illegal kickback to induce [physicians] to use the company's vertebral augmentation devices."
The government alleges that DFine provided improper remuneration in the form of "travel expenses, lavish dinners, entertainment and promotional speaker fees" to doctors located in Chicago and Little Rock, Arkansas. The government further alleges that DFine "solicited physicians to convert their business from a competitor’s product and/or persuade the physicians to continue using DFine products."
“Decisions about devices used to treat serious spinal condi...
