April 15, 2020

A Florida-based reference laboratory, pain clinic, and two former executives have agreed to pay $41 million to settle claims of defrauding Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, and other government health programs by billing for medically unnecessary urine drug tests between 2010 to 2017.  Led by Michael T. Doyle and Christopher Utz Toepke, the defendants allegedly had a policy of automatically ordering both presumptive and definitive urine drug tests for all patients at every visit regardless of need, with Toepke’s Tampa Pain Relief Centers Inc. performing all presumptive tests, and Doyle’s Logan Laboratories Inc. performing all definitive tests.  The alleged False Claims Act violations were eventually brought to light in two qui tam cases; the whistleblowers of those cases will split a relator’s share of approximately $7.79 million.  DOJ; EDPA; MDFL; FL

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicaid, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,