A federal jury within the Southern District of Florida convicted a Georgia man as we speak for his position in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting over $463 million in genetic and different laboratory exams that sufferers didn’t want and that have been procured by the fee of kickbacks.
In response to courtroom paperwork and proof offered at trial, Minal Patel, 44, of Atlanta, owned LabSolutions LLC (LabSolutions), a lab enrolled with Medicare that carried out subtle genetic exams. Patel conspired with affected person brokers, telemedicine corporations, and name facilities to focus on Medicare beneficiaries with telemarketing calls falsely stating that Medicare coated costly most cancers genetic exams. After the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take a take a look at, Patel paid kickbacks and bribes to affected person brokers to acquire signed medical doctors’ orders authorizing the exams from telemedicine corporations. To hide the kickbacks, Patel required affected person brokers to signal contracts that falsely acknowledged that they have been performing reliable promoting providers for LabSolutions.
The telemedicine medical doctors authorized the costly testing although they weren’t treating the beneficiaries and sometimes didn’t even converse with them. From July 2016 by August 2019, LabSolutions submitted greater than $463 million in claims to Medicare, together with for medically pointless genetic exams, of which Medicare paid over $187 million. In that timeframe, Patel personally obtained over $21 million in Medicare proceeds.
Patel was convicted of 1 depend of conspiracy to commit well being care fraud and wire fraud, three counts of well being care fraud, one depend of conspiracy to defraud the US and to pay and obtain unlawful well being care kickbacks, 4 counts of paying unlawful well being care kickbacks, and one depend of conspiracy to commit cash laundering. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on March 7, 2023, and faces a most penalty of 20 years in jail on the primary conspiracy depend, 10 years on every well being care fraud depend, 5 years on the second conspiracy depend, 10 years on every kickback depend, and 20 years on the third conspiracy depend. A federal district courtroom decide will decide any sentence after contemplating the U.S. Sentencing Pointers and different statutory components.
Assistant Lawyer Common Kenneth A. Well mannered, Jr. of the Justice Division’s Legal Division; Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI Legal Investigative Division; Particular Agent in Cost Robert M. DeWitt of the FBI Miami Subject Workplace; and Particular Agent in Cost Omar Pérez Aybar of the Division of Well being and Human Providers, Workplace of Inspector Common (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Workplace made the announcement.
The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Jamie de Boer, Emily Gurskis, Reginald Cuyler Jr., and Katherine Rookard of the Legal Division’s Fraud Part are prosecuting the case.
The case was introduced as a part of Operation Double Helix, a federal regulation enforcement motion led by the Well being Care Fraud Strike Drive, below the supervision of the Legal Division’s Fraud Part, targeted on fraudulent genetic most cancers testing that has resulted in costs towards dozens of defendants related to telemedicine corporations and most cancers genetic testing laboratories for his or her alleged participation in one of many largest well being care fraud schemes ever charged.
