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C.R. Bard agrees to $17M settlement following kick-back allegations 

C.R. Bard agrees to $17M settlement following kick-back allegations 

ATLANTA – C.R. Bard and its affiliates, Liberator Medical Supply, Liberator Holdings and Rochester Medical, have agreed to pay $17 million to resolve allegations that they provided free samples and discounts to encourage urology practice groups to use their prescription form for prescribing intermittent catheters for their patients, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia. 

The provision of remuneration – anything of value – to induce a physician to prescribe certain devices over others is prohibited by the Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b. 

“Patients should be able to trust the recommendations they receive from their physician are what’s best for their health, not what’s financially beneficial to another provider,” said Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. “We’re committed to putting a stop to any type of fraud or abuse within our health care system while protecting taxpayer dollars no matter the amount.” 

The government alleges that, between 2016 and February 2020, sales reps for Bard, which acquired Rochester Medical and began marketing intermittent catheters in 2013, began leveraging discounts on and free samples of in-office urological products to convince urology practice groups to make its Link prescription form – which listed the various Bard intermittent catheters – the standard catheter prescription form for its group.  The patients would then take the Link prescription to a DME supplier to purchase the catheters. 

Two years later, after Bard acquired Liberator Medical and Liberator Holdings to create its own medical equipment subsidiary for the sale of intermittent catheters directly to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, the government alleges Bard used the Link prescription form to encourage urology practices to prescribe intermittent catheters through Liberator Medical rather than other DME suppliers. 

The settlement resolves allegations filed by Dirk Etheridge, a former employee of 180 Medical, under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act. Etheridge will receive a share of the settlement. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Georgia State Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Division investigated this case. 

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