Atricure Whistleblower Fraud Matter
Case Name: U.S. ex rel. Jane Doe v. AtriCure, Inc.
Case Type: Whistleblower/Qui Tam
Filed in: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
Docket: [Case No.: 4:07-CV-02702]
In 2010, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and the U.S. Department of Justice settled a whistleblower/qui tam action brought under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) against AtriCure Inc. (“AtriCure”), a medical device manufacturer. As part of the settlement, AtriCure agreed to pay $4.15 million to resolve all claims against it. The relator was represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight.
The Complaint alleged that AtriCure violated the FCA and the Anti-Kickback Statute by using illegal kickbacks and an off-label marketing campaign to induce doctors and hospitals to perform AtriCure’s costly inpatient cardiac surgical ablation procedures rather than standard, and more effective, outpatient catheter ablation procedures. As a result, the Medicare program faced substantially increased costs from AtriCure’s unnecessary and expensive procedures.