Home 5 Articles 5 Texas MDs Pay $3.9 Million to Settle Claims of Falsely Billing Urine Drug Tests

Texas MDs Pay $3.9 Million to Settle Claims of Falsely Billing Urine Drug Tests

by | Nov 30, 2021 | Articles, Essential, Lab Compliance Advisor, Labs in Court-lca

Case: A pair of Texas physicians have agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle claims of billing Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE for urine drug tests that they knew weren’t medically necessary out of their now defunct in-house pain clinic lab. The former lab employee who brought the whistleblower claim that got this case started will receive a share of $618,000. Significance: The feds claim that the physicians drafted the testing protocols that resulted in the performance of unnecessary tests knowing that the clinic needed the revenue from the tests to remain profitable. Even without whistleblower intervention, there’s a pretty good chance that the excessive number of urine drug tests generated by the clinic would have been spotted by the enforcement establishment’s radar [United States ex rel. Nuessner, et al. v. Austin Pain Associates, LLC, et al., 5:16-CV-1125-FB (W.D. Tex.)].

Case: A pair of Texas physicians have agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle claims of billing Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE for urine drug tests that they knew weren’t medically necessary out of their now defunct in-house pain clinic lab. The former lab employee who brought the whistleblower claim that got this case started will receive a share of $618,000.

Significance: The feds claim that the physicians drafted the testing protocols that resulted in the performance of unnecessary tests knowing that the clinic needed the revenue from the tests to remain profitable. Even without whistleblower intervention, there’s a pretty good chance that the excessive number of urine drug tests generated by the clinic would have been spotted by the enforcement establishment’s radar [United States ex rel. Nuessner, et al. v. Austin Pain Associates, LLC, et al., 5:16-CV-1125-FB (W.D. Tex.)].

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