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DJO to pay $7.62 million for subsidiary’s “assumptive selling”

DJO Global (DJO), Vista, CA, has agreed to pay $7.62 million to resolve allegations that its now-defunct subsidiary, Empi, Shoreview, MN, submitted false claims to TRICARE for excessive, unnecessary transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) electrodes that TRICARE beneficiaries did not need or use.

The settlement resolves allegations that Empi used inappropriate techniques such as “assumptive selling” to persuade some TRICARE beneficiaries to seek and accept unjustifiably large quantities of TENS electrodes from 2010 through 2015, with a steep increase in the number of beneficiaries receiving unnecessary quantities in 2014 and 2015. Assumptive selling consisted of Empi sales representatives contacting some TRICARE beneficiaries and inducing them to order excessive TENS electrodes by acting as though the beneficiaries had indicated a need for them, when that may not have been the case. Empi has ceased operations.

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