Drug Abuse Treatment Owner Guilty of $57 Million Drug Test Pass-Thru Billing Conspiracy
Case: The owner of a northern Florida substance abuse treatment center pleaded guilty for his role in a $57 million pass-through lab testing billing and money laundering scheme. The way it worked: The treatment center owner cut a deal with a lab owner to send patient urine samples to the lab for urine drug testing in exchange for a 40% share of the insurance reimbursements. The lab owner did his part by arranging with managers of two rural hospitals to bill private insurers to secure the highest possible rates for the tests. Significance: Making the scheme even more egregious is that the same treatment center owner also brokered parallel urine drug testing deals between the rural hospitals and other substance abuse facilities, pocketing 30% of reimbursements as his commission. In addition to forfeiting $10.2 million in ill-gotten gains, he’s looking at a high fine and time behind bars when sentencing is handed down.
Case: The owner of a northern Florida substance abuse treatment center pleaded guilty for his role in a $57 million pass-through lab testing billing and money laundering scheme. The way it worked: The treatment center owner cut a deal with a lab owner to send patient urine samples to the lab for urine drug testing in exchange for a 40% share of the insurance reimbursements. The lab owner did his part by arranging with managers of two rural hospitals to bill private insurers to secure the highest possible rates for the tests.
Significance: Making the scheme even more egregious is that the same treatment center owner also brokered parallel urine drug testing deals between the rural hospitals and other substance abuse facilities, pocketing 30% of reimbursements as his commission. In addition to forfeiting $10.2 million in ill-gotten gains, he’s looking at a high fine and time behind bars when sentencing is handed down.
