Duluth News Tribune | 01/25/2006 | Lawsuit alleges Medtronic bribed doctors [1]

BY CHRIS WILLIAMS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS - A whistleblower lawsuit alleges medical device maker Medtronic Inc. improperly paid millions of dollars to more than a dozen doctors around the United States, prompting them to perform unnecessary spinal surgeries and otherwise affecting their judgment.

One surgeon allegedly was paid $400,000 for eight days of consulting per year. Another surgeon received $1.39 million from 2001 through May 2005, according to a lawsuit filed by Jacqueline Kay Poteet, a former employee of subsidiary Medtronic Sofamor Danek.