Feds make criminal charge of kickbacks by lab and doctors

The next time your doctor sends you for a blood test perhaps you’ll want to make sure that the test is necessary and that there are no hidden deals between the doctor and the laboratory. That improper activity is behind the criminal charge by a federal prosecutor in New Jersey against a laboratory testing company, three of its executives and a referring doctor. The charges include violations of Medicare and anti-kickback statutes and other state and federal laws.

The U.S. Attorney stated that from 2006 through 2013, the laboratory diagnostics company made more than $200 million and its president took $33 million in cash distributions out of the company during that time. Charges were filed against the company and three of its officials. A fourth arrest was of a 43-year-old male medical doctor of Boonton, New Jersey.

The criminal charge, according to the U.S. Attorney, includes that the company’s employees were engaging in an extended scheme to bribe doctors to refer patient blood samples to the lab to order unnecessary tests, resulting in millions in profit. For example, the prosecutor claims that numerous physicians were bribed with different inducements and kickbacks, including unnecessary leases of space in the doctors’ medical offices, consulting agreements which paid the doctors for zero consulting and other sham inducements that paid the doctors serious money to refer the testing to the company.

There were at least four individuals who cooperated in one form or another and will plead guilty, admitting to accepting or engaging bribes, the prosecutor announced. He also said that more indictments of doctors are on the way. He indicated that any doctors out there who participated should call him before he calls them. The indictment describes the scenario as a ‘massive’ physician bribery organization.

Under federal and New Jersey law, the criminal charge array against the accused entities and individuals calls for stiff sentences and hefty fines. When a criminal defense to serious federal and state charges is needed by a New Jersey resident, a meeting with an experienced criminal defense counsel is highly recommended as soon as possible. In this way, it can be determined early on whether a plea agreement should be negotiated or not. An early plea negotiation with the prosecutor often results in significant reductions in the punishment meted out.

Source: darkdaily.com, “Clinical Pathology Laboratory Executives Indicted and Arrested by U.S. Attorney in New Jersey for Bribery, Inducement, and Other Crimes,” Robert L. Michel, April 15, 2013