A whistleblower claims in a number of lawsuits under the federal False Claims Act that the Medicare program was defrauded by medical device makers.   The suits variously charge that the companies, which include Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Inc., St. Jude Medical Inc., Endoscopic Technologies, Inc. and others, with inflating the costs of cardiac procedures covered by Medicare by wrongfully and deceptively marketing their products and encouraging doctors and hospitals to use unnecessary procedures.

Endoscopic Technologies last week agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle the case against it.

The federal False Claims Act allows whistleblowers to file suit against companies that have or are defrauding the government and, if successful, to keep 15-25% of the monies recovered.

Source:  Bloomberg