Indian American Lab Owner Minal Patel Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison in $463 Million Genetic Testing Scheme
- Patel of Atlanta, Georgia, who owned LabSolutions LLC., conspired to target Medicare beneficiaries falsely stating that Medicare covered expensive cancer genetic tests.
An Indian American man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare, the the Department of Justice announced on Aug. 18. Minal Patel, 44 of Atlanta, Georgia, who owned LabSolutions LLC (LabSolutions), submitted “over $463 million in genetic and other laboratory tests that patients did not need, and that were procured through the payment of kickbacks and bribes,” the DOJ said.
Through his lab, which performed genetic tests, Patel conspired with patient brokers, telemedicine companies, and call centers to target Medicare beneficiaries with telemarketing calls falsely stating that Medicare covered expensive cancer genetic tests. After the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take a test, he paid kickbacks and bribes to patient brokers to obtain signed doctors’ orders authorizing the tests from telemedicine companies.
Additionally, her patient brokers “sign sham contracts to conceal the kickbacks and bribes,” while being aware that “they were deceptively marketing to Medicare beneficiaries and paying kickbacks and bribes to telemedicine companies for genetic testing prescriptions,” the DOJ said.
From July 2016 through August 2019, “LabSolutions submitted more than $463 million in claims to Medicare, including for thousands of medically unnecessary genetic tests, of which Medicare paid over $187 million,” the DOJ said. In that timeframe, “Patel personally received over $21 million from Medicare in connection with the fraud.”
Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division described it as “one of the largest genetic testing fraud cases ever tried to verdict.”