Clinical lab Radeas is paying $11.6 million to settle allegations that it submitted false claims to Medicare for unnecessary drug testing, the Justice Department said March 31.
Radeas admitted that between January 2016 and September 2021, it billed Medicare for two kinds of drug testing, which are usually performed on the same specimen separately and at different times to obtain presumptive and confirmatory results. Radeas performed both kinds of testing at about the same time and submitted the results to healthcare providers simultaneously, without consulting with a physician about the need for the second, more expensive test, the Justice Department said.
Radeas, based in Wake Forest, N.C., also admitted that between May 2013 and April 2021, it paid sales organizations based on how many drug testing referrals their representatives made to Radeas, the Justice Department said.
In addition to the settlement sum, Radeas entered into a five-year corporate integrity agreement with the Office of the Inspector General for HHS. The agreement includes yearly Anti-Kickback Statute compliance reviews and yearly reviews of Radeas' claims to federal healthcare programs, the Justice Department said.