Biotronik DOJ Settlement: Whistleblowers and Prior 2014 Case

Biotronik Inc., the U.S. arm of the German cardiac device maker, paid $12.95 million in July 2022 to settle Department of Justice allegations that it paid kickbacks to physicians who implanted its pacemakers, defibrillators, and other cardiac rhythm devices. The Biotronik DOJ settlement resolved False Claims Act allegations tied to Medicare and Medicaid billing, and it was the company’s second federal kickback resolution in under a decade. A separate whistleblower case involving a different alleged scheme is still moving through the courts.

What the 2022 Settlement Resolved

The DOJ announced the deal on July 22, 2022. Of the $12.95 million total, roughly $933,400 went to five states — Arizona, California, Illinois, Missouri, and Nevada — to cover Medicaid losses, with the remainder going to the federal government.¹

The government said the kickbacks took several forms. Biotronik ran a training program that paid physicians about $400 per session to supervise new company employees during implant procedures. According to the DOJ, Biotronik overused the program, paid for sessions that never occurred, and blocked qualified trainees from finishing early so more paid sessions could be scheduled.²

The company also allegedly gave physicians expensive meals, winery tours, and office holiday parties without any legitimate business purpose, plus international business-class airfare and honoraria of thousands of dollars for talks as short as 30 minutes at overseas conferences. The DOJ said Biotronik failed to verify who attended events or confirm business purposes, which let employees falsify records and blow past per-person spending caps.²

Biotronik’s own compliance department had flagged the issues internally, according to reporting on the settlement. Compliance staff warned that sales personnel had “too much influence” over which physicians got training payments and that the training program was being overused. The company allegedly ignored those warnings.³

Biotronik did not admit liability. The DOJ stated that “the claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.”¹

The Whistleblowers Behind the Case

The case began as a qui tam suit filed by two former Biotronik sales representatives, Jeffrey Bell and Andrew Schmid, in the Central District of California under the caption United States ex rel. Bell, et al. v. Biotronik, Inc. et al., No. 2:18-cv-1895.¹ Bell alleged he had raised concerns internally about excessive physician training payments and payments to medical assistants, and that he faced retaliation including death threats, forced overtime, and withheld commissions.⁴

The relators’ recovery was split across several buckets: $2.6 million as their share of the federal and state settlement, half of a separate $855,000 payment from the California Department of Insurance, and $750,000 to resolve their individual retaliation claims. Their attorneys at Cutter Law P.C. received $500,000 in statutory fees and costs.⁵

Corporate Integrity Agreement

Alongside the payment, Biotronik entered a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the HHS Office of Inspector General. It took effect on August 26, 2022, with an estimated end date of August 2027, and subjects the company to ongoing OIG claims review.⁶

Biotronik said it had tightened compliance around its field training program and imposed new limits on meals and travel provided to healthcare providers. President Ryan Walters said the company had been building out its compliance organization since 2019, and VP of Compliance Jason Spinazzola described the use of “cutting-edge internal controls.”⁷

Biotronik’s Earlier 2014 Kickback Settlement

This was not Biotronik’s first DOJ resolution. On November 6, 2014, the company paid $4.9 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to electrophysiologists and cardiologists in Nevada and Arizona to induce them to use its pacemakers, defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices. The alleged inducements were repeated meals at expensive restaurants and inflated payments for seats on a physician advisory board.⁸

That case also began as a qui tam action, filed by former employee Brian Sant, who received about $840,000 of the federal recovery. Biotronik did not admit liability in that settlement either.⁸

A Separate Whistleblower Case Is Still Active

The 2022 settlement did not close the book on kickback litigation against Biotronik. A third qui tam action, United States ex rel. Sam Jones Company, LLC v. Biotronik, Inc., filed in 2017 in the Central District of California, alleges a different arrangement: that Biotronik hired the relatives of physicians who implanted its devices and paid those relatives commissions tied to device volume. The government declined to intervene.⁹

The complaint centers on Brian Goodman, hired as a Biotronik sales representative, and his brother Dr. Jeffrey Goodman, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Brian Goodman received 15 to 20 percent commissions on Biotronik cardiac rhythm devices implanted by his brother. Between 2013 and 2018, Medicare paid for at least 692 Biotronik devices implanted or replaced by Dr. Goodman, and Brian Goodman’s commissions on those devices exceeded $1 million. The complaint alleges Dr. Goodman had not used Biotronik implants before his brother joined the company in 2008 and stopped using them after his brother returned to competitor Medtronic.¹⁰

The relator alleges violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark Law, and the False Claims Act. A district judge dismissed the case in January 2023 under the False Claims Act’s public disclosure bar, pointing to a 2011 New York Times article. The Ninth Circuit reversed on September 10, 2025, finding that the article had not identified the Goodmans, Cedars-Sinai, or the specific commission arrangement.⁹ Biotronik sought Supreme Court review on March 4, 2026, and the Court denied certiorari on May 18, 2026, sending the case back to the district court.¹¹

About the Company

Biotronik is a privately held, family-owned medical device maker founded in Berlin in 1963. Its parent is Biotronik SE & Co. KG, and it has run U.S. operations from Lake Oswego, Oregon, since 1979, where it conducts R&D, product design, and manufacturing.¹² A 2025 court filing noted that Biotronik had been sold to Teleflex Incorporated as of July 2025, though no other source in the record confirmed the details of that transaction.¹⁰

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Medical Device Manufacturer Biotronik Inc. Agrees To Pay $12.95 Million To Settle Allegations of Improper Payments to Physicians
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MedTech Dive. Biotronik Reaches $12.95M DOJ Settlement Over Kickback Allegations
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MassDevice. Biotronik Reaches $12.95M Settlement With DOJ Over Improper Payment Allegations
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Cutter Law. $12.95 Million Settlement in Whistleblower Case Against Biotronik Alleging Kickbacks to Doctors
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HHS Office of Inspector General. Biotronik, Inc. Corporate Integrity Agreement
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Biotronik. Biotronik, Inc. Reaches Settlement With U.S. Department of Justice
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U.S. Department of Justice. Biotronik, Inc. To Pay $4.9 Million To Resolve Claims Company Paid Kickbacks to Physicians
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Metropolitan News-Enterprise. Kickback Scheme Allegations Revived by Ninth Circuit
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SCOTUSgate. Biotronik, Inc. v. United States Ex Rel. Sam Jones Company, LLC, No. 25-1059
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Bureau of Industry and Security. Biotronik Tariff Exclusion Petition