False Claims Act prosecutions continue against healthcare executives, physicians and professionals. Last year, DOJ recovered over $5.6 billion in FCA enforcement. DOJ expects total recoveries to increase in 2022. Over 95 percent of False Claims Act prosecutions involved healthcare fraud and kickbacks.
Two Doctors and Eight Others Indicted for Healthcare Kickbacks
In a recent prosecution in the Northern District of Texas, DOJ announced the indictment of ten individuals, including two physicians, in a $300 million healthcare fraud scheme. In the 26-count indictment, the defendants were charged with healthcare fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks, paying illegal kickbacks and soliciting kickbacks.
The Indictment alleges that the founders of three lab companies, including Unified Laboratory Services, Spectrum Diagnostic Laboratory and Reliable Labs, paid kickbacks to induce medical professionals to order medically unnecessary lab tests, which they then billed to Medicare and other federal healthcare programs.
Two physicians and a nurse practitioner accepted the bribes and order millions of dollars of unnecessary and fraudulent tests. Two of the lab companies disguised the kickbacks as payments for medical advisory services, salary offsets, lease payments and marketing commissions.
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