By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
HOW OFTEN IS A DEFUNCT LAB COMPANY IN THE NEWS? That was the odd development last week when it was announced that a U.S. District Court had entered a $1.4 million civil judgement against Calloway Laboratories, Inc., a toxicology lab company formerly based in Woburn, Mass., for business practices during the period May 2014 through
By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 issue
IN RECENT DECADES, probably no sector of the U.S. healthcare system has seen the level of fraud and abuse that seems to pervade the clinical laboratory industry. The common perception is that illegal inducements between lab companies and referring physicians are rampant and federal prosecutors have failed to bring enough violators to justice to effectively
This is an excerpt from a 5,000-word article in the January 22, 2018, issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available for a limited time to all readers, and available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: UnitedHealth made national news when it filed a $100 million lawsuit against
By Pamela Scherer McLeod, from the Volume XXV, No. 2 – January 22, 2018 issue
CEO SUMMARY: UnitedHealth made national news when it filed a $100 million lawsuit against Next Health and other defendants in Dallas in January 2017. The insurer alleged fraud involving clinical laboratory tests. That lawsuit is just the latest chapter in an almost decade-long string of legal proceedings involving the healthcare businesses some of the defendants have
By R. Lewis Dark, from the Volume XXV, No. 2 – January 22, 2018 issue
IN RECENT YEARS, MANY CLINICAL LAB ADMINISTRATORS AND PATHOLOGISTS have looked with dismay at the increased fraud associated with the laboratory test referrals of office-based physicians. High-profile federal cases involving lab companies accused of fraud garner national headlines.
Small companies sending sales reps into physicians’ offices, however, have changed the landscape in 2018 versus that of
This is an excerpt from a 2,350-word article in the Oct. 30, 2017 issue of THE DARK REPORT. The complete article is available for a limited time to all readers, and available at all times to paid members of the Dark Intelligence Group.
CEO SUMMARY: Growing numbers of hospitals are being asked to enter into a
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXIV, No. 15 – October 30, 2017 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Management companies using a new generation of potentially fraudulent schemes are targeting hospitals and health systems for arrangements that use questionable means to increase lab test volume and revenue. The management companies often use the term “hospital outpatient department (HOPD) billing model” to describe these arrangements. The scammers want the hospitals, as in-network
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXII NO. 16 - November 16, 2015 issue
IN ANOTHER MAJOR LAB FRAUD CASE, toxicology lab company Millennium Health will pay $256 million to settle allegations in a whistleblower lawsuit that it overbilled federal healthcare programs for unnecessary lab testing. Just 22 days after this agreement, Millennium Health filed a petition for a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 10.
In papers submitted to
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XX No. 16 - December 2, 2013 issue
CEO SUMMARY: Physicians could make $400 or more per sample, according to one physician. But under the federal Stark Law, the federal Anti-kickback Law, and under Florida state law, physicians and other healthcare providers are prohibited from referring patients or doing work for kickbacks and from splitting fees with other healthcare providers, according to one
By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XX No. 3 - March 4, 2013 issue
CEO SUMMARY: When the Washington State Attorney General issued an Attorney General Opinion last fall, he created confusion among pathologists and lab directors whose labs have paid to have EHR software installed in physicians’ offices. The Washington AG’s ruling not only conflicts with federal law, which allows labs to donate EHR software, but raises questions
