Fraud Suit Claims Contractor Paid Gift Cards in Exchange for Urine Samples
Federal prosecutors allege that a vendor called the ADAR Group encouraged unnecessary drug testing by different labs and got the military’s health care system, Tricare, to pay for them. According to the Dallas Morning News, soldiers were given Wal-Mart gift cards in exchange for providing saliva and urine, the criminal filing said. Erik Bugen, of Austin, was indicted in July. Bugen has pleaded not guilty.
The ADAR Group also found specimens for Next Health by giving people $50 gift cards to urinate in cups at Whataburger restrooms, according to a civil suit filed by UnitedHealthcare. Next Health labs conducted the tests under the guise of a “wellness study,” the lawsuit alleges.
The litigation has spawned a new case in which two laboratories, accused of bribery and offering kickbacks are seeking to retain their federal licenses to do business.
An embattled Dallas laboratory company accused of masterminding a $100 million fraud through bribes and kickbacks is fighting to keep its licenses to stay in business, according to a federal civil lawsuit.
Lawyers for Next Health and Medicus Laboratories filed a lawsuit on Aug. 18 against state and federal officials and agencies, seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop them from suspending or revoking the company’s federal laboratory licenses.
Such a move would effectively put them out of business, the lawsuit says. Federal inspectors said they found regulatory violations without offering specifics, according to Next Health’s lawsuit.
That’s not the company’s only concern.
Two of Next Health’s principals, Andrew Hillman and Semyon Narosov, are currently facing federal bribery and kickback charges along with 19 others in connection with the former doctor-owned hospital chain Forest Park Medical Center. Prosecutors say the hospital paid about $40 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals that generated $200 million in paid claims.
The UnitedHealthcare civil suit was filed in February against Next Health. There the insurer seeks $100 million in damages based on its claims that Next Health paid bribes and kickbacks to doctors and other providers between 2011 and 2016 for overpriced and unnecessary drug and genetic tests.
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