After the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take tests, Patel paid kickbacks and bribes to patient brokers to obtain signed doctors’ orders authorising the tests from telemedicine companies, the Department of Justice said
Minal Patel, 44, an Indian-American laboratory owner from Atlanta has been convicted of involvement in a €447.54 million genetic testing scam to defraud Medicare. Patel is the owner of LabSolutions LLC. He conspired with patient brokers, telemedicine companies and call centres to target Medicare beneficiaries with telemarketing calls falsely stating that their package covered expensive cancer genetic tests, federal prosecutors alleged, reported PTI.
After the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take tests, Patel paid kickbacks and bribes to patient brokers to obtain signed doctors’ orders authorising the tests from telemedicine companies, the Department of Justice said.
Patel is scheduled to be sentenced on March 7, 2023, and 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
To conceal the kickbacks, Patel required the patient brokers to sign contracts that falsely stated that they were performing legitimate advertising services for LabSolutions.
A federal court in Florida has convicted Patel of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, three counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive illegal health care kickbacks, four counts of paying illegal health care kickbacks, and one count of conspiracy to commit money-laundering.
Patel is scheduled to be sentenced on March 7, 2023, and 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.
*********************************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com
