Vista, Calif.-based medical device company DJO Global agreed to pay $7.62 million following allegations that a subsidiary billed Tricare for excessive and unnecessary supplies. The settlement resolves all allegations.
Here is what you need to know:
1. Now-defunct Shoreview, Minn.-based device company Empi, DJO Global's subsidiary, allegedly submitted false claims to Tricare for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation electrodes that Tricare beneficiaries did not need or use. TENS is a pain relief therapy that uses low-voltage electrical current.
2. The settlement resolves allegations that Empi used "assumptive selling" to persuade Tricare beneficiaries to seek and accept unjustifiably large quantities of TENS electrodes between 2010 and 2015, with a particularly sharp increase in the number of beneficiaries receiving unnecessary quantities in 2014 and 2015. Empi sales representatives contacted Tricare beneficiaries and allegedly convinced them to order excessive TENS electrodes by acting as though the beneficiaries had indicated a need for them, even when that was not the case.
3. DJO shut down Empi in November 2015; Empi ceased operations in December 2015.
4. The matter was resolved under the False Claims Act. It was handled by the Civil Frauds Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, the Justice Department's Commercial Litigation Branch and the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General.
"This settlement demonstrates the commitment of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), along with our law enforcement partners, to aggressively pursue the waste, fraud and abuse of Department of Defense and Tricare resources," said Special Agent in Charge Michael Mentavlos of the DCIS Southwest Field Office.
5. There has been no determination of liability.
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