Business ProfileforLabSolutions, LLC

The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the government's allegations, which have not yet been proven.

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
September 27, 2019

The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the government's allegations, which have not yet been proven.

Elderly Patients Nationwide Lured into Criminal Scheme; Centers for Program Integrity & Medicare Services Takes Administrative Action against Providers that Submitted Over $1.7 Billion in Claims

A federal law enforcement action involving fraudulent genetic cancer testing has resulted in charges in five federal districts against 35 defendants associated with dozens of telemedicine companies and cancer genetic testing laboratories (CGx) for their alleged participation in one of the largest health care fraud schemes ever charged.

According to the charges, these defendants fraudulently billed Medicare more than $2.1 billion for these CGx tests. Among those charged today are 10 medical professionals, including nine doctors.

The Department of Justice, Criminal Division, together with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and FBI spearheaded today's landmark investigation and prosecution that resulted in charges against CEOs, CFOs and others.

In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Center for Program Integrity (CMS/CPI), announced today that it took adverse administrative action against cancer genetic testing companies and medical professionals who submitted more than $1.7 billion in claims to the Medicare program.

The coordinated federal investigation targeted an alleged scheme involving the payment of illegal kickbacks and bribes by CGx laboratories in exchange for the referral of Medicare beneficiaries by medical professionals working with fraudulent telemedicine companies for expensive cancer genetic tests that were medically unnecessary.

Often, the test results were not provided to the beneficiaries or were worthless to their actual doctors. Some of the defendants allegedly controlled a telemarketing network that lured hundreds of thousands of elderly and/or disabled patients into a criminal scheme that affected victims nationwide. The defendants allegedly paid doctors to prescribe CGx testing, either without any patient interaction or with only a brief telephonic conversation with patients they had never met or seen.

In the Southern District of Florida, the following defendants were charged:

Minal Patel, 40, of Atlanta, Georgia was charged based on his role in an alleged scheme to solicit medically unnecessary CGx tests from Medicare beneficiaries through telemarketing and "health fairs." The tests were then approved by telemedicine doctors who allegedly did not engage in treatment of the beneficiaries, and often did not even speak with the beneficiaries for whom they ordered tests.
Patel, the owner of LabSolutions in Georgia and Pennsylvania, then paid the telemarketers illegal kickbacks and bribes in exchange for the doctor's orders and medically unnecessary tests. LabSolutions billed Medicare for more than $494 million. In addition, the government seized approximately $30 million in bank accounts from Patel, as well as luxury vehicles, including a Ferrari and a Range Rover.
For additional information:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-law-enforcement-action-involving-fraudulent-genetic-testing-results-charges-against