Seven people from five different states have been charged with scamming Medicare and Colorado Medicaid for more than $40 million.
According to a press statement from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, the seven were involved through numerous organizations, including Tesis Labs, LLC, situated in Lafayette, and 303 Diagnostics, LLC, headquartered in Aurora.
The seven indicted individuals were from Maine, Florida, New York, California, and Arizona, despite the companies’ domicile being in Colorado.
Four of the seven reportedly colluded to cheat Medicare and state Medicaid in a variety of ways, including paying kickbacks and bribes to bogus marketing firms for referrals to medically unnecessary genetic testing.
These referrals resulted in $40 million in bogus claims paid by Medicare and state Medicaid to the labs, according to the publication.
The report alleges that all seven conspired to offer and pay unlawful bribes and kickbacks for health care benefit programs, including Medicare, state Medicaid, and private health insurance policies.
They agreed to pay kickbacks and bribes to individuals they defined as “marketers” in order to persuade patients to undergo needless genetic testing. This includes the elderly Medicare beneficiaries.
According to the publication, the bribe receivers employed contact centers to target the victims of unneeded tests.
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the FBI Denver Field Division, and the IRS Criminal Investigation Department are all investigating the issue.
