After a few weeks lacking in healthcare-related enforcement actions involving labs or lab testing, this past week finally saw a couple of key fraud cases—one involving urine drug tests, and the other relating to COVID-19 testing. A doctor was also convicted for his role in a $5 million healthcare fraud scheme.
Key Healthcare-Related Enforcement Actions Announced from March 8 – March 15, 2023
| Date Action Announced | Defendant(s) | Allegations/Charges/Convictions | Result |
| March 10 | · Rita Ausiejus · Solid Diagnostics, Inc. | The Massachusetts-based independent clinical lab and its owner are charged with larceny over $1,200 and Medicaid reverse fraud claims relating to improperly ordered and medically unnecessary urine drug tests that allegedly led to more than $400,000 being falsely billed to the Massachusetts Medicaid program. | Defendants to be arraigned on March 21.1 |
| March 10 | Frederick Gooding | Physician and owner of a now-defunct pain management and psychiatry practice in Washington, DC, was convicted for his role in a $5 million healthcare fraud scheme in which he billed Medicare for injections he either never provided, or didn’t provide as billed. | Convicted of 11 counts of healthcare fraud and is to be sentenced June 26. Faces up to 10 years for each count.2 |
| March 13 | Zishan Alvi | Co-owner of a company identified as “Laboratory A,” a Chicago-based lab supposedly offering two types of COVID-19 tests, was indicted on one count of theft of government funds and 10 counts of wire fraud. The charges relate to alleged fraudulent billing to the HRSA Uninsured Program for COVID-19 testing that was either already paid for by customers, improperly performed, or not performed at all. The defendant is also alleged to have used the ill-gotten funds for his own personal use. | Indictment aims for Alvi to forfeit funds from trade and investment accounts, five luxury vehicles, and at least $6.8 million gained from the alleged scheme. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on the theft of government funds count and up to 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count.3 |