VitalAxis Inc., a Maryland-based billing company for diagnostic laboratories, has agreed to pay $300,479.58 to resolve False Claims Act allegations that it caused the submission of false claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary respiratory pathogen panels run on seniors who received COVID-19 tests.

Throughout 2020, VitalAxis performed billing services for a diagnostic laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia that provided COVID-19 testing to residents of senior living communities. For one chain of communities, the laboratory directed VitalAxis to bill Medicare for respiratory pathogen panels purportedly ordered by a physician who had not actually ordered the tests and who was ineligible to treat Medicare beneficiaries. VitalAxis found the credentials of a different physician and, without authorization, billed Medicare using that physician’s name. Medicare subsequently paid the laboratory for these medically unnecessary tests.

“Federal health care programs only pay for items or services that are reasonable and medically necessary,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Today’s settlement demonstrates our commitment to pursue those who exploited the COVID-19 pandemic by billing the government for wasteful tests that nobody wanted or needed.”

“Unscrupulous companies that exploit the Medicare billing system divert important resources away from the program and abuse patient trust,” said U.S. Attorney...