Indian American convicted in $447.54 million genetic testing scam
According to federal prosecutors, Patel, the owner of LabSolutions LLC, bribed patient brokers to obtain signed doctors' orders authorising the tests from telemedicine companies after the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take tests.
FollowMinal Patel, an Indian American laboratory owner from Atlanta, has been convicted in a $447.54 million genetic testing scam to defraud Medicare. The 44-year-old was found guilty of conspiring with patient brokers, call centres and telemedicine companies to target Medicare beneficiaries with telemarketing calls falsely stating that their package covered expensive cancer genetic tests.
According to federal prosecutors, Patel, the owner of LabSolutions LLC, bribed patient brokers to obtain signed doctors' orders authorising the tests from telemedicine companies after the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take tests.
The Department of Justice said that Patel tried to conceal the kickbacks by requiring the patient brokers to sign contracts that falsely stated that they were performing legitimate advertising services for LabSolutions.
The expensive testing was approved by the telemedicine doctors even though they were not treating the beneficiaries. Often, they did not even speak with them. LabSolutions submitted over $463 million in claims to Medicare, including for medically-unnecessary genetic tests, from July 2016 through August 2019. Out of this amount, Medicare paid over $187 million. In that duration, Patel personally received over $21 million in Medicare proceeds.
A federal court in Florida convicted Patel of four counts of paying illegal health care kickbacks, three counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive illegal health care kickbacks, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Patel, who is scheduled to be sentenced on 7 March 2023, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the first conspiracy count, 10 years on each health care fraud count, five years on the second conspiracy count, 10 years on each kickback count and 20 years on the third conspiracy count, a media release said.
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