On May 19, 2021, the Department of Justice (Eastern District of Pennsylvania) announced in a PRESS RELEASE that Medicrea International, a French medical device manufacturer, and its American affiliate Medicrea USA Inc., agreed to pay:
- $1 Million to the United States and participating states to resolve civil whistleblower allegations that the companies, by entertaining U.S.-based physicians during a 2013 conference in France, violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and, through resulting claims to federal healthcare programs, the False Claims Act and similar state statutes; and
- an additional $1 Million to the United States to resolve related allegations that the companies violated the physician Open Payments Program (formerly known as the “Sunshine Act”) by failing to fully report those physician-entertainment expenses to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The settled claims are allegations only. There has been no determination of liability.