A North Carolina lab owner was convicted by a federal jury for his role in a scheme to defraud the state's Medicaid program with medically unnecessary urine tests.
Donald Booker, 57, was convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, multiple violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, money laundering conspiracy, and money laundering, according to a Jan. 10 news release from the Justice Department.
Mr. Booker owned United Diagnostic Laboratories and United Youth Care Services, a behavioral health and substance abuse treatment provider. According to the Justice Department, Mr. Booker worked with a co-conspirator, Delores Jordan, who owned a housing provider.
Between January 2016 and August 2019, Ms. Jordan recruited housing-vulnerable individuals to participate in housing programs and other services. These beneficiaries were then required to submit medically unnecessary urine samples for drug testing.
These urine samples were provided to Mr. Booker's lab, where he then submitted requests to Medicaid for reimbursement, receiving $11 million in fraudulent claims, according to the Justice Department.
Mr. Booker paid Ms. Jordan kickbacks from the Medicaid reimbursements for recruiting the individuals.
Ms. Jordan pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy in December.