AARP JOINS MAJOR WHISTLEBLOWER SUIT ON STENTS

AARP has signed on as co-counsel in a major whistleblower lawsuit against Abbott labs, Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific for off label marketing of metal billiary stends. In this suit, the whistleblower, a former sals rep for Guidant, says that the stents were incorrectly placed in older patients to treat vacular disease but were not spproved by the FDA for that purpose. The FDA approved the stends for cancer patients with biliary blockages and were marketed as vascular stends without FDA approval. The lawsuit says that millions of people underwent procedures and Medicare and medicaid paid millions in claims unecessarily. AARP joined the suit because fraud is draining billions fromt he health care system which hurts older persons.