Seven medical labs accused of Medi-Cal fraud

[babylonsister]

Seven medical labs accused of Medi-Cal fraud

The private companies, which will be identified today by state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, allegedly overcharged for blood, urine and other tests.

By Carol J. Williams
March 20, 2009


Seven private medical laboratories have defrauded the Medi-Cal program of hundreds of millions of dollars by systematically overcharging the state by as much as 400% for blood, urine and other lab tests, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said Thursday.

Brown plans to announce a civil lawsuit today against the companies, five of which are in Los Angeles. The suit aims to recover at least $100 million worth of the excessive charges paid by the program, which provides health services to the poor.

The attorney general's office launched an investigation three years ago after an executive of a competing medical lab filed a private false-claims action under seal.

The whistle-blower will be rewarded with a share of whatever fraudulent receipts the state can recover from the seven labs.

"Our lawyer said that if I offered to settle this case for $100 million that the other side would jump at it," Brown said in an interview with The Times. "These companies have funds. They're not all household names but they have money."

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-medical-fraud20-2009mar20,0,1221111.story

[kckc]

1. wow!

I read an update in the SF Citizen, which named the companies. Three of them are very very well known, large, national corporations (just like any other business, these large labs swallow up local/regional labs and account for a huge share of the testing market). I actually worked for one of them years ago, around the time they really went national and started "consolidating" (read: closing labs, laying off people, delaying health care so that samples could be shipped elsewhere for testing). I got out just in time and have been with a solid, well-respected, family-owned lab (the CEO pathologist swears we will never sell out to one of these chains. I say Never Say Never, esp. as the management leans to the right, but the company is doing well).

http://sfcitizen.com/blog/2009/03/20/jerry-brown-throws-down-massive-medi-cal-fraud-case-against-medical-labs/

[juno jones]

2. Let's not be shy.

This is public record, after all.

- Quest Diagnostics, Inc., based in Madison, NJ; its affiliate Specialty Laboratories, Inc., based in Valencia, CA; and 4 other Quest affiliates.
- Health Line Clinical Laboratories, Inc., now known as Taurus West, Inc., based in Burbank, CA.
- Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Inc., based in Santa Ana, CA.
- Physicians Immunodiagnostic Laboratory, Inc., based in Burbank, CA.
- Whitefield Medical Laboratory, Inc., based in Pomona, CA.
- Seacliff Diagnostics Medical Group, based in Monterey Park, CA.
- Laboratory Corporation of America, based in Burlington, NC.


The above articles are very enlightening, thank you.

[Why Syzygy]

3. I don't know the laws..

but I think people who perpetuated this should be barred from doing business with the government.
That might well put K&R out in the cold as well.