The Florida owner of multiple diagnostic labs will be spending 82 months in a federal prison after being convicted of generating kickbacks for genetic lab tests ordered via telehealth visits.
The owner took advantage of temporary waivers put in place to ensure patients access to medical care during the public health emergency by paying off telehealth providers to order medically unnecessary cancer and cardiovascular genetic tests; in return, providers got access to personal information about the beneficiaries and the chance to bill for telehealth consultations, many of which never actually took place.
This case targeting the co-owners of Panda Conservation Group LLC is part of a larger COVID-19 Health Care Fraud Unit coordinated enforcement action spanning seven judicial districts against 14 defendants for allegedly exploiting the temporary regulatory waivers to generate illegal referral for genetic lab tests ordered via telehealth consultations. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced a series of such actions since the start of the pandemic, including the recent nine-state enforcement action announced on April 20.