Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces today that Physicians Group Services, P.A. (“PGS”) has agreed to pay the United States and the State of Florida $700,000 to resolve allegations that PGS violated the False Claims Act by submitting false or fraudulent claims to the Florida Medicaid Program, which is a state and federal partnership that provides access to health care coverage for low-income families and individuals in Florida.
The United States’ investigation focused on urine drug testing (“UDT”) by PGS. UDT occurs in a variety of health care settings. In a pain management practice, UDT is used to monitor whether a patient is taking prescribed drugs, is taking non-prescribed drugs, or is consuming with prescribed drugs other dangerous substances, such as alcohol. UDT is either “qualitative” or “quantitative.”
The clinical value of quantitative UDT depends in part on whether the qualitative UDT result is expected or unexpected, as well as the patient’s history of drug abuse, history of medication adherence and compliance, clinical presentation, and medical history. The settlement announced today resolves allegations that PGS submitted claims to Florida Medicaid for quantitative urine drug testing, which claims the United States and the State of Florida allege were medically unnecessary because the testing was not individualized to the particular needs of the patient.
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