Home 5 Articles 5 Tennessee Operator Fined $9.015 Million for Running Drug Testing Lab After Being Excluded from Medicare

Tennessee Operator Fined $9.015 Million for Running Drug Testing Lab After Being Excluded from Medicare

by | Dec 2, 2020 | Articles, Essential, Lab Compliance Advisor, Labs in Court-lca

Case: Mr. Dube was excluded from federal healthcare programs in June 2012. But that didn’t stop him from establishing American Toxicology Labs (ATL) in Tennessee in May 2013. With Mr. Dube’s wife serving as the registered agent, ATL applied to participating in Medicare and Medicaid listing the wife as owner and the couple’s home address as its principal office address. Once admitted, ATL performed urine drug screens for opioid treatment facilities generating $8.5 million in false billings to Medicare and Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee state Medicaid programs, with the excluded Mr. Dube at the helm at all times. Significance: In addition to running a lab while he was excluded, Mr. Dube received $441,646 in kickback payments for referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to third party providers. In addition to $9,015,046 in fines, restitution and forfeiture, the couple was sentenced to three years of probation, four months of home detention and 400 hours of community service.

Case: Mr. Dube was excluded from federal healthcare programs in June 2012. But that didn’t stop him from establishing American Toxicology Labs (ATL) in Tennessee in May 2013. With Mr. Dube’s wife serving as the registered agent, ATL applied to participating in Medicare and Medicaid listing the wife as owner and the couple’s home address as its principal office address. Once admitted, ATL performed urine drug screens for opioid treatment facilities generating $8.5 million in false billings to Medicare and Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee state Medicaid programs, with the excluded Mr. Dube at the helm at all times.

Significance: In addition to running a lab while he was excluded, Mr. Dube received $441,646 in kickback payments for referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to third party providers. In addition to $9,015,046 in fines, restitution and forfeiture, the couple was sentenced to three years of probation, four months of home detention and 400 hours of community service.

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