Daniel Hurt, the owner and/or operator of multiple medical companies, recently agreed to pay $27 million to resolve allegations that he and his companies conspired with others to violate the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to (and receiving payment from) Medicare. Hurt and the companies filed false claims for cancer genomic tests that were not medically necessary and obtained through illegal kickbacks.
The five companies involved – Fountain Health Services LLC, Verify Health, Landmark Diagnostics LLC, First Choice Laboratory LLC and Sonoran Desert Pathology Associates LLC – as well as Hurt also agreed to be excluded from Medicare, Medicaid, and other Federal health programs by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG).
The DOJ alleged that Hurt and his companies (as well as other individuals) conspired to knowingly submit false claims for cancer genomic tests that were not medically necessary to treat or diagnose a condition and that Hurt received and paid kickbacks on, in exchange for Medicare referrals. The United States alleged that from January 2019 to November 2021, Hurt conspired with: certain telemarketing agents to solicit Medicare beneficiaries for “free” cancer genomic tests; certain telemedicine providers to prescribe the medically unnecessary cancer genomic tests; and with certain billing laboratories and a hospital to submit claims for payment to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The...
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