Spinal Fixation Pharma Sales Reps Lawsuits
Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives for Spinal Fixation Medical Devices: You may be Entitled to Substantial Compensation. Read on to Find Out Why!
Are you a current or former pharmaceutical sales representative for one of the following companies?
- Alphatec Spine
- Aurora Spine
- CoreLink Surgical
- Globus Medical
- Life Spine
- Medtronic
- MiRus
- NuVasive
- Precision Spine
- RTI Surgical
- Southern Spine
- Spinal Elements
Do you sell spinal fixation devices or know other medical or drug representatives that sell spinal fixation medical devices? If your company incentivizes you to offer kickbacks to doctors so that they purchase those products, keep reading for more information about why this may be illegal.
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Kickbacks for Spinal Fixation Devices
Sometimes doctors are incentivized to use spinal fixation devices in surgeries, which may influence how often these surgeries are recommended to patients. In fact, studies have shown direct correlation in doctors’ treatment recommendations and payments they have received from pharmaceutical companies.[1]
A “kickback” is an illegal payment in return for facilitating a transaction. It can be viewed as a type of bribery to get preferential treatment, such as when it results in securing a contract.
Some pharmaceutical companies on the list above have already been sued for unethical sales techniques, such as Medtronic. In 2017, a pharmaceutical sales representative filed a lawsuit against Medtronic for using kickbacks to incentivize doctors to buy from their company. The hospital employees were taken out to expensive dinners and given extravagant gifts by Medtronic salespeople, who then “groomed” physicians to push the use of their medical devices.
Similarly, in 2019, Life Spine – another pharmaceutical company on the list above — settled a case in which they were accused of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to get doctors to use their spinal fixation devices. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney working on the case said, “Such conduct seriously undermines the public’s confidence in medical treatment decisions made by doctors whose judgment may be compromised by illegal kickbacks.”[2]
Are Kickbacks Really Illegal?
There are laws in place that make clear that kickbacks are not only unethical, but illegal.
The Anti-Kickback Statute is a federal law which applies to recipients of Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE (federal healthcare programs) and makes it illegal for kickbacks to doctors who provide services to patient recipients of those programs. Specifically, “purchasing, leasing, ordering, or arranging for or recommending purchasing, leasing, or ordering any good, facility, service, or item for which payment may be made in whole or in part under a Federal health care program . . . .” may be deemed an illegal kickback.[3] Under the Anti-Kickback Statute, these kickbacks are illegal within federal health care programs because financial kickbacks keep a doctor from making unbiased medical treatment decisions on behalf of a patient.
The Stark Law is another federal law also known as the Physician Self-Referral Law, which specifically disallows referrals from healthcare providers with a financial interest in the treatment or service they are recommending. There are civil penalties for each violation of this law by a physician.
The False Claims Act also provides for civil penalties for each violation. There are both civil and criminal penalties for violations of this Act, which protects governmental programs from being defrauded by doctors. Congress has determined that providing kickbacks to doctors to influence their treatment decisions is punishable under this law, and allows private citizens to bring lawsuits for this. Doctors have been sued under this law for merely choosing to send their patients to one lab in exchange for kickbacks in the form of payments from the lab.[4]
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Pharmaceutical Reps
Did your company incentivize you or your customers to use certain medical devices by offering kickbacks? Our attorneys would like to talk to you. If you provide information that leads to a successful lawsuit, you may be entitled to significant compensation. We will respect your confidentiality. Just fill out the form on this page to get started.
Whistleblower Claims
Whistleblowers who provide information that lead to a successful lawsuit may be eligible for whistleblower awards.
Attorney R. Scott Pietrowski
R. Scott Pietrowski is counsel at Siri & Glimstad LLP and has over twenty-four years of litigation and trial experience. Mr. Pietrowski’s litigation experience is broad, having handled matters in state and federal courts in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida in the areas of class actions, consumer financial services litigation, complex lender liability litigation, employment law, wage and hour actions, insurance defense, real property, criminal law, judicial foreclosure, and a wide array of complex civil litigation.
