NeuroMetrix Inc., a Waltham medical device maker, agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $1.2 million and change its business practices to avoid prosecution for illegal kickbacks to doctors, the US Department of Justice said.
The agreement resolves a Justice Department investigation into the company’s NC-stat System, a device used to diagnose conditions related to carpal tunnel syndrome, leg pain and other disorders.
To use the device, doctors were ordinarily required to purchase disposable biosensors. But the Justice Department alleged that NeuroMetrix illegally paid doctors to recommend the NC-stat system to their colleagues by giving them free boxes of the biosensors.
