The Health Diagnostics Laboratory, Inc. (HDL) and Singulex kickback saga continues. In recent years, most of the action has been centered not so much on the labs themselves but on others involved in the scheme, including BlueWave Healthcare Consultants, their marketing firm and the downstream physicians to whom the labs directed their kickbacks. But this most recent action turns the spotlight back on the principles of HDL. It occurred on Feb, 22, 2021, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a massive $114.1 million jury verdict against a former blood lab chief executive officer and two sales consultants in a whistleblower case. The HDL Scandal The U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) makes it illegal to offer, pay, solicit or receive remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by federally funded programs, such as lab tests. The point of the AKS is to ensure that physicians make medical treatment decisions based on the best interests of the patient without being influenced by bribes and improper financial incentives. For sheer dollars involved, the HDL scheme is the biggest AKS prosecution ever undertaken against a lab. Some have even described it as the mother of all clinical lab frauds. For…
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