An Illinois diagnostic company that provides home sleep testing services has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle claims that it defrauded Medicare and other federal healthcare programs through kickbacks and unnecessary testing.
The Justice Department accused Wheeling-based Snap Diagnostics, its owner Gil Raviv and vice president Stephen Burton, of violating the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute, according to a June 6 news release from the department.
Mr. Raviv allegedly directed Snap to submit claims for patients' second and third nights of home sleep testing, when the company knew that only a single night of testing was needed to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, according to the department.
The scheme allegedly resulted in the defrauding of five federal agencies, and Snap also unlawfully multiplied the copays it received from Medicare beneficiaries, the department said. Snap's business model also relied on kickback schemes that encouraged physicians and their staffs to refer all of their home sleep testing services to Snap, the department alleged.
Mr. Raviv agreed to pay $300,000, and Mr. Burton agreed to pay $125,000 to settle the allegations. Mr. Raviv and Snap entered a corporate integrity agreement with the HHS Office of the Inspector General under which the company will, among other things, hire an independent review organization to perform annual reviews of claims and submit reports to the inspector general.