US Fines J&J $9.75 Million Over Kickbacks to Surgeon for Overseas Surgeries
Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Synthes unit will pay $9.75 million to settle U.S. Department of Justice accusations that DePuy illegally provided free products to a Massachusetts surgeon who used them in spinal surgeries in six Middle Eastern countries.
According to settlement papers, the surgeon used more than $100,000 of DePuy’s implants and instruments between July 2013 and Feb. 2018 in more than 20 surgeries in Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The Justice Department said DePuy provided the products to induce the surgeon to use its products in spinal surgeries he performed in Boston on patients who, unlike in the overseas surgeries, were covered by the government’s Medicare and Medicaid health programs….