WASHINGTON: An Indian-American lab owner has pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare by hoarding more than $463 million in genetic and other lab tests that patients did not need.
Atlanta-based Minal Patel, 44, owned LabSolutions LLC—a lab enrolled with Medicare that performed sophisticated genetic tests, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial. According to the US Department of Justice, from July 2016 to August 2019, LabSolutions submitted more than $463 million in claims to Medicare, involving medically unnecessary genetic tests, of which Medicare paid more than $187 million.
Minal Patel conspired with patient brokers, telemedicine companies and call centres to target Medicare beneficiaries with telemarketing calls falsely stating that their package covered expensive cancer genetic tests, federal prosecutors alleged.
After the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take tests, Patel paid kickbacks and bribes to patient brokers to obtain signed doctors’ orders authorising the tests from telemedicine companies, the Department of Justice said.
To conceal the kickbacks, Patel required the patient brokers to sign contracts that falsely stated that they were performing legitimate advertising services for LabSolutions.
A federal court in Florida has convicted Patel of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, three counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive illegal health care kickbacks, four counts of paying illegal health care kickbacks, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Patel is scheduled to be sentenced on March 7, 2023, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the first conspiracy count, 10 years on each health care fraud count, five years on the second conspiracy count, 10 years on each kickback count, and 20 years on the third conspiracy count, a media release said.
