Indian-American lab owner jailed for $463 mn fraud scheme
Indian-American lab owner jailed for $463 mn fraud scheme
New York: A 44-year-old Indian-origin lab owner was sentenced o 27 years in prison for defrauding Medicare by submitting over $463 million in genetic and other laboratory tests that patients did not need.
According to court documents, Minal Patel’s Atlanta-based LabSolutions LLC was enrolled with Medicare and performed sophisticated genetic tests.
Patel conspired with patient brokers, telemedicine companies, and call centers to target Medicare beneficiaries with telemarketing calls. The calls falsely stated that Medicare covered expensive cancer genetic tests, a Department of Justice release said.
After the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take a test, Patel paid kickbacks and bribes to patient brokers to obtain signed doctors’ orders authorising the tests from telemedicine companies. To conceal the kickbacks and bribes, Patel required patient brokers to sign sham contracts that falsely stated that the brokers were performing legitimate advertising services for LabSolutions.
Patel knew that the brokers were deceptively marketing to Medicare beneficiaries and paying kickbacks and bribes to telemedicine companies for genetic testing prescriptions.
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