Case: The owner of a northern Florida substance abuse treatment center pleaded guilty for his role in a $57 million pass-through lab testing billing and money laundering scheme. The way it worked: The … [Read more...]
Labs in Court
Drug Abuse Treatment Owner Guilty of $57 Million Drug Test Pass-Thru Billing Conspiracy
February 6, 2020
Labs In Court
A roundup of recent cases and enforcement actions involving the diagnostics industry
January 27, 2020
Reference Lab Pays $26.7 Million to Settle False Claim Charges Case: The feds claim that Laboratory Boston Heart Diagnostics contracted to provide lab testing services to Texas hospitals in … [Read more...]
EKRA: More than a Year Out, Major Questions Remain Unresolved
January 26, 2020
One of the scariest new lab compliance laws in recent memory is the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018 (EKRA). While laws banning remuneration in exchange for referrals is nothing new to … [Read more...]
ANTI-KICKBACK
Compliance Tool: Model In-Office Phlebotomist Agreement
January 24, 2020
The following Model Agreement between a testing lab and a referring physician was created by Savannah, GA, lab compliance attorney Adam Walters and structured to minimize kickback liability risks to … [Read more...]
LABS IN COURT
Massachusetts Practice Busted for Taking Free POCT Cups from Millennium
January 15, 2020
Case: A northern Massachusetts medical practice and Detroit pain clinic became the latest downstream providers to pay the OIG a five-figure fine to settle kickback claims in the form of accepting free … [Read more...]
In Brief: OIG Opens Second Avenue for Anti-Kickback Statute Revisions
January 13, 2020
Even as we wait for the second draft of the proposed new value-based kickback relief rules—see National Intelligence Report (NIR), Nov. 15, 2019—the OIG issued its annual call for recommendations for … [Read more...]
LABS IN COURT
Texas Health System Fined $431K for Falsely Billing Genetic Tests
January 10, 2020
Case: The feds contend that between 2016 and 2018, Decatur Hospital Authority (d/b/a Wise Health System) sent samples from surgical patients to Tennessee labs for medically unnecessary genetic tests. … [Read more...]
Labs In Court A roundup of recent cases and enforcement actions involving the diagnostics industry
January 2, 2020
Court Refuses to Let M.D./Executives Out of Their Non-Competes Case: After leaving the national reference lab in which they owned equity and served as executives, a pair of Georgia pathologists … [Read more...]
EKRA
EKRA: More than a Year Out, Major Questions Remain Unresolved
January 2, 2020
One of the scariest new lab compliance laws in recent memory is the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018 (EKRA). While laws banning remuneration in exchange for referrals is nothing new to … [Read more...]
COMPLIANCE
Sales & Marketing: The Perils of Restructuring Sales Commissions for EKRA
January 2, 2020
For many years, it was fairly common practice for labs to pay their sales representatives variable compensation based on the volume and value of the tests they generated. But those arrangements became … [Read more...]
