Corporate Greed strikes again
The AP (12/12) reported, "Medtronic Inc., the world's largest maker of medical devices, has agreed to pay $23.5 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to doctors to implant its pacemakers and defibrillators, the US Justice Department said Monday." Federal prosecutors "alleged that Medtronic caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid by using two post-market studies and two device registries as vehicles to pay illegal kickbacks to doctors. 'Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries depend on their physicians to make decisions based on sound medical judgment, especially when they are choosing which pacemaker or defibrillator to implant,' B. Todd Jones, US attorney for Minnesota, said in a statement."
This is exactly what I was talking about the other day. The largest medical device maker in the world plays dirty. Now, do we blame the justice department for higher medical costs because they went after them, or is it right to punish them for their bad behavior. If it is right to punish them, then what is the difference between the justice department going after a company for wrong doing or a private citizen going after them? Nothing. Both are prosecuting the wrong doer. That is what a plaintiff's action does - punishes wrongdoers. So, what do companies like Medtronic's do? They convince legislatures to pass tort reform so private citizens can't punish them for wrongdoing in an amount that would actually be punitive. This kind of thing happens everyday in corporate America.
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