Stryker Sues DOJ Over Subpoenas - Becker's ASC Review

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Stryker Sues DOJ Over Subpoenas

Written by Rob Kurtz

Thursday, 28 August 2008

Stryker has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice, accusing the federal government of using subpoena requests in the ongoing probe of allegations concerning false claims submitted for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, according to published reports.

The lawsuit claims the DOJ and the OIG are filing "oppressive" and "overly broad" subpoena requests, and Stryker is asking the court to invalidate the subpoenas and stop their enforcement, according to the The Record in North Jersey.

Stryker has said it has already provided hundreds of thousands of documents and a significant amount of electronic information in response to the subpoenas as the federal agencies investigate the false claims allegations.

"Stryker has been damaged and continues to suffer damages as a result of defendants' ongoing actions in pursuing enforcement of an oppressive and overbroad (subpoena)," Stryker lawyers wrote in the lawsuit, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette in Michigan.

Although Stryker settled with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in October 2007 following allegations that its orthopedics division was allegedly providing kickbacks to surgeons for their use Stryker products, the settlement did not protect it from investigation from the OIG, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Read The Record’s coverage of the Stryker lawsuit.

Read the Kalamazoo Gazette’s coverage of the Stryker lawsuit.