Massachusetts Laboratory and Its Owners Pay Over $1.5 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations
U.S. Attorney John H. Durham, Special Agent in Charge Phillip Coyne of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong today announced that CLINICAL SCIENCE LABORATORY, INC. and its owners, STANLEY ELFBAUM and LOUIS AMORUSO, have entered into a civil settlement agreement with the federal and state governments and have paid $1,508,106 to resolve allegations that they violated the federal and state False Claims Acts.
Clinical Science Laboratory, Inc. (“CSL”), located in Mansfield, Massachusetts, provides laboratory-testing services, specifically urine drug testing services, for substance abuse patients enrolled in the Connecticut Medicaid program. The government alleges that CSL, Elfbaum and Amoruso violated Connecticut’s so-called “Most Favored Nation” regulation (Conn. Agencies Regs. § 17b-262-649), which provides, in essence, that clinical laboratories should not seek payment from Connecticut Medicaid for services at a price that is higher than the lowest price the laboratory charges for the same or similar services from other third parties. Specifically, the government alleges that CSL regularly accepted payments from Connecticut Medicaid for urine drug screen testing at the rate of $38 per test, while at the same time charging substance abuse treatment clinics approximately $2 per test
To resolve the governments’ allegations under the federal and state False Claims Acts, CSL, Elfbaum and Amoruso agreed to pay $1,508,106, which covers claims submitted to the Connecticut Medicaid program from October 1, 2016, through May 23, 2017.
“We must ensure that taxpayers’ health care dollars used for substance abuse treatment are properly spent,” said U.S. Attorney Durham. “Clinical laboratories should not charge government health care programs a higher price than they charge to other providers for the same or similar services, and those who do so will be held accountable.”
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ct/pr/massachusetts-laboratory-and-its-owners-pay-over-15-million-settle-false-claims-act
