Our case began in Charlotte County, Florida, as case number 22000870CA. Case number 6D23-0982 was our Appeal in the 6th District Court of Appeals. 6D23-1716 was our Petition for Writ of Certoriari. Unfortunately, we did not prevail in our case. We are now exploring our options, including the possibility of filing a new case in Federal Court.
A few days after our case concluded, Millennium Physician Group abruptly fired Dr. Keith Williams, after 20 years of employment, with no backup plan, closing one of their most lucrative offices, and leaving hundreds of patients in Charlotte County abandoned with no doctor.
On October 2, 2024, the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services announced a 27 million dollar settlement with Precision Diagnostics for violations of the False Claims Act and the anti-kickback statutes. They had been ripping off the taxpayers of America, the United States government, and at least 42 states over a 10 year time period. The same day, Florida’s Attorney General announced that our Medicare Fraud department secured $700,000 for the taxpayers of the State of Florida. We alleged in our case that Dr. Keith Williams was taking kickbacks. He was using their leaking cups to ship urine samples more than 2,500 miles, to San Diego, California. Why would a doctor ship urine more than 2,500 miles, when insurance was paying for the tests, and when there are hundreds if not thousands of testing labs located in Florida, and in the States between Florida and California? Below are copies of the press releases.
Precision Toxicology Agrees to Pay $27M to Resolve Allegations of Unnecessary Drug Testing and Illegal Remuneration to Physicians
Wednesday, October 2, 2024. For Immediate Release. Office of Public Affairs.
Precision Toxicology, doing business as Precision Diagnostics, has agreed to pay $27 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act and similar state statutes for billing Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs for medically unnecessary urine drug tests, and for providing free items to physicians who agreed to refer expensive laboratory testing business to Precision. Precision, headquartered in San Diego, is one of the nation’s largest urine drug testing laboratories.
“The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that laboratory tests are ordered based on each patient’s medical needs and not just to increase laboratory profits,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will not tolerate practices that unnecessarily increase the costs of federal health care programs and result in the misuse of taxpayer funds.”
In the settlement agreement, the United States alleged that Precision systematically billed federal health care programs for excessive and unnecessary urine drug testing from January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2022. In particular, the United States contended that Precision caused physicians to order excessive numbers of urine drug tests, in part through the promotion of “custom profiles”, which were, in effect, standing orders that caused physicians to order a large number of tests without an individualized assessment of each patient’s needs. This practice violated federal health care program rules limiting payment to services that are reasonable and medically necessary for the treatment and diagnosis of an individual patient’s illness or injury.
The United States also alleged that Precision’s provision of free point of care urine drug test cups to physicians – expressly conditioned on the physicians’ agreement to return the urine specimins to Precision for additional testing – violated the Anti-Kickback Statute. The Anti-Kickback Statute generally prohibits laboratories from giving physicians anything of value in exchange for referrals of tests.
To read the complete release please visit https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/precision-toxicology-agrees-pay-27m-resolve-allegations-unncesessary-drug-testing-and-illegal
AG MOODY’S MEDICAID FRAUD CONTROL UNIT SECURES MORE THAN $700,000 THROUGH MULTISTATE ACTION FROM TOXICOLOGY LABORATORY
Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit secured more than $700,000 in a multistate action against Precision Toxicology, LLC d/b/a Precision Diagnostics, Inc. The action comes after allegations that Precision knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false claims to federal healthcare programs related to urine drug testing that was not medically necessary or tainted by kickbacks.
Precision is a toxicology laboratory that markets and performs laboratory UDT nationwide, primarily for substance use disorder and pain management providers. The multistate action alleged that claims Precision submitted to Medicaid were not medically reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of an illness or injury or to improve the functioning of a malformed body member.
Specifically, Precision allegedly developed and implemented a policy and practice of utilizing non-allowable blanket orders for UDT without any physician making an individualized determination that the UDT was medically necessary or reasonable for the particular patients for whom the tests were ordered. It was also alleged that Precision provided free point-of-care UDT cups to physicians in exchange for UDT referrals, in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C. section 1320a-7b(b).
A National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units Team investigated the allegations in conjunction with the Department of Justice and United States Attorneys Offices in Colorado, Connecticut and Maryland. The NAMFCU Team included representatives from the Offices of Attorneys General for the states of Florida, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland and Virginia.
Due to the multistate action, Precision will pay millions of dollars, plus interest, collectively to the United States, the District of Columbia, Florida and 42 other states.