The Justice Department has indicted 36 people for submitting $1.2 billion in false claims to Medicare. The schemes involved laboratory owners paying illegal kickbacks to medical providers who referred patients for unnecessary telemedicine, genetic testing, and durable medical equipment. The prosecutions highlight a new scheme involving cardiovascular genetic testing. According to the DOJ, “cardiovascular genetic testing was not a method of diagnosing whether an individual presently had a cardiac condition and was not approved by Medicare for use as a general screening test for indicating an increased risk of developing cardiovascular conditions in the future.”
The DOJ press release is here:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-charges-dozens-12-billion-health-care-fraud
