Hard on the heels of the plea agreement added to its miserable week by posting nearly $30 million in losses for 2008.

The Waltham-based company said sales were off 30 percent from 2007. The drop off in sales contributed to a net loss of $27.7 million for the year, compared to an 8.4 million loss reported for 2007.

The bulk of its $4.1 million fourth-quarter net loss stemmed from the $3.7 million federal settlement, with the rest due to a $274,000 writedown on the NeuroMetrix January buyout of joint-venture partner Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc.

The company, which slashed its sales force by 40 percent during the second quarter last year, claimed that much of its sales woes are due to concerns about reimbursement for NC-stat treatments. NeuroMetrix cited a 1.5 percent decline to 5,189 in the number of physicians using its instruments and said those doctors also bought less of the consumables used with the systems.

Sales of consumables accounted for about 90 percent of all sales over the past two years, with medical equipment accounting for the rest.

Costs rose 5 percent in the fourth quarter and 3 percent on the year, largely due to higher discounts as NeuroMetrix phases pricing for its new Advance product.

But there’s hope in a recent decision by the American Medical Association’s CPT Editorial Panel, which authorized a billing code for 2010 for the type of nerve conduction measurement used in the NeuroMetrix technology.