Patient Recruiter Found Guilty of Running Telemarketing CGx Testing Scheme
Case: After a four-day trial, the owner of an Orlando telemarketing call center was found guilty of running a $2.8 million cancer genetics screening test scam (CGx) targeting seniors in Medicare. The firm owned by 34-year-old Ivan Andre Scott called beneficiaries and persuaded them to take CGx tests costing up to $6,000 pop on the assurance that they were covered by Medicare. Scott also paid kickbacks to telemedicine companies to get physicians to order the tests regardless of medical necessity and often without even speaking to the patient. He then submitted invoices to the labs for hourly marketing services to conceal the kickbacks. Significance: The Orlando case is part of the Operation Rubberstamp national takedown initiative targeting telemarketing fraud unveiled by the Justice Department last fall. Many of the schemes in the takedown, the largest in DOJ history, involve payment of kickbacks and false billing of lab tests.
Case: After a four-day trial, the owner of an Orlando telemarketing call center was found guilty of running a $2.8 million cancer genetics screening test scam (CGx) targeting seniors in Medicare. The firm owned by 34-year-old Ivan Andre Scott called beneficiaries and persuaded them to take CGx tests costing up to $6,000 pop on the assurance that they were covered by Medicare. Scott also paid kickbacks to telemedicine companies to get physicians to order the tests regardless of medical necessity and often without even speaking to the patient. He then submitted invoices to the labs for hourly marketing services to conceal the kickbacks.
Significance: The Orlando case is part of the Operation Rubberstamp national takedown initiative targeting telemarketing fraud unveiled by the Justice Department last fall. Many of the schemes in the takedown, the largest in DOJ history, involve payment of kickbacks and false billing of lab tests.
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