2 min read

BOSTON – A bone marrow registry and medical laboratory company that used fashion models wearing high heels and short skirts to recruit potential donors will pay the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire $770,000 for engaging in an improper marketing practice, officials in both states said Thursday.

The Caitlin Raymond International Registry and UMass Memorial Health Ventures Inc. paid models to help recruit potential registrants during donor drives at malls, festivals and sporting ventures, including Gillette Stadium and the Mall of New Hampshire.

The practice drew sharp criticism from officials in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire, prompting an apology and a promise to stop using models from UMass Memorial Health Care Inc. in December 2010.

According to a final judgment filed Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court, the registry and lab company — both subsidiaries of UMass Memorial Health Care — will pay restitution to Massachusetts consumers for any out-of-pocket payments they previously made for donor testing.

They will also pay the state $500,000 for initiatives to improve health care services and to combat unlawful marketing practices and $20,000 to cover the cost of the state attorney general’s investigation. They also agreed to not charge health plans more than $175 over the next five years for donor testing.

New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney announced a separate consent judgment in which UMass Memorial will pay the state of New Hampshire $200,000 in civil penalties for unfair and deceptive practices, $50,000 in attorneys’ fees and donate $100,000 to the National Bone Marrow Registry.

Delaney said UMass Memorial violated the public’s trust by overcharging for testing done by its lab and paying commissions to employees who lured donors who had private insurance.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said that beginning in 2007, UMass Memorial laboratories performed the vast majority of the DNA tests of individual samples collected by the bone marrow registry staff. The number of donor tests performed by UMass Memorial increased significantly, from about 7,000 in 2008 to more than 40,000 in 2010.

 

Comments are no longer available on this story