U.S. Sues to Recover Outlays for Breast Implants

The Justice Department sued Friday to recover millions of dollars spent through federal health care plans for treatment of alleged injuries from silicone breast implants. It asked that the money come out of a settlement fund for the thousands of women.

The government asked the court to halt settlement payments to women who used Medicare or other federally funded health care programs under the settlement program until the federal government gets reimbursed for its costs.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., the government named as defendants six companies and the administrator of the settlement fund those companies established to compensate women allegedly injured by the implants.

As of last April, 81,000 women had been sent payments from the settlement fund. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned most use of silicone gel-filled breast implants in 1992.

Friday’s lawsuit argues that the six companies and the settlement fund are liable for reimbursing Medicare and the other federal health care programs for costs incurred treating the women.

The lawsuit did not put an exact figure on how much the government is seeking, but a Justice Department statement said it was in the millions of dollars.

The Medical Care Recovery Act permits the government to recover the cost of providing medical care to people injured as a result of the wrongful acts of a third party, the department said.

Justice spokesman Charles Miller said the lawsuit took this form because negotiations to recover the money from the implant manufacturers had been unsuccessful after several years of talks.

The government said the class-action settlement provided women claiming injuries with $3,000 for surgery to remove the implants and additional payments for those with diseases or injuries allegedly caused by the implants.

Of the women who have received payments from the fund, 17,000 got $3,000 for removal surgery, the lawsuit said. An additional 26,000 women also received payment for an implant-related disease and 10,000 others received a onetime $2,500 payment to waive all future claims.

As of May, 52,118 implant recipients had refused to join the class action, preserving their right to press their claims individually, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said the companies and the settlement fund administrator failed to determine whether any of the women making claims had been Medicare beneficiaries before sending them payments from the settlement fund. It said the defendants had not paid the government on behalf of any Medicare-treated women who obtained settlement payments.

The companies named in the lawsuit were Baxter International Inc., Baxter Healthcare Corp., Bristol-Meyers-Squibb Co., 3M Co., Union Carbide Chemical and Plastics Co., and Union Carbide Corp. Edgar C. Gentile III was named in his capacity as escrow agent of the settlement fund.