George B. Breen, Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences and Litigation practices and Chair of the firm’s National Health Care and Life Sciences Practice Steering Committee, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Bloomberg Law: Health Law & Business, in “Medtronic Kickback Case Moving Forward in Pennsylvania,” by Matt Phifer.

Following is an excerpt:

Medtronic Inc. will have to answer questions about alleged kickbacks it gave to health-care providers to induce them to prescribe its devices.

A federal trial court in Pennsylvania ruled against the medical device company’s summary judgment motion, which argued the case shouldn’t continue because the allegations were already publicly known. Judge Edward Smith of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that the whistleblower provided enough additional information to what was already known for the case to proceed. …

“In my view, taking the position a relator isn’t an agent in this context doesn’t support one of the intentions behind the public disclosure bar,” George Breen, an attorney at Epstein Becker Green in Washington who defends clients in health-care fraud litigation, told Bloomberg Law. He said that the idea behind the bar was so the government didn’t have to share a recovery if substantially the same allegations have already been disclosed and that this issue may be litigated further. …

“I don’t know if this court’s decision would change strategy in connection with pursuing a motion to dismiss or summary judgment with respect to public disclosure,” Breen told Bloomberg Law.

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.