Clinical Lab, CEO Agree to $13 Million Settlement of Kickback Allegations
- January 12, 2024
Clinical laboratory RDx Bioscience Inc. and its owner and Chief Executive Officer Eric Leykin have agreed to pay to the United States $10,315,023 to resolve allegations involving illegal kickbacks and medically unnecessary laboratory testing, the Department of Justice announced January 10.
RDx and Leykin will pay an additional $2,934,977 to the state of New Jersey.
The settlement resolves allegations that: (1) RDx and Leykin paid commissions based on the volume and value of Medicare and Medicaid referrals to independent contractor marketers to arrange for and recommend that health care providers order RDx laboratory tests; (2) RDx marketer Corum Group LLC paid health care providers thousands of dollars in purported management services organization payments, which were disguised as investment returns but actually were intended to induce the providers to order RDx laboratory tests; (3) RDx marketers BeauMed Consultants LLC and Ralston Health Group Inc. paid thousands of dollars to health care providers that were disguised as consulting or medical director fees but were actually offered to induce orders for RDx laboratory tests; (4) RDx marketer Seaworthy Recovery Services Inc. paid thousands of dollars in kickbacks to one or more principals of certain substance abuse recovery centers to induce their referrals to RDx for laboratory testing; and (5) RDx and Leykin paid specimen collection fees to the staff members of referring health care providers to induce them to order RDx laboratory testing.
In addition, from 2017 to 2023, RDx and Leykin allegedly submitted or caused false claims to Medicare and Medicaid for laboratory tests that were not reasonable and necessary; not covered because they were identical orders of urine drug testing panels for all patients within a clinician’s practice without individualized decision-making; or not covered because they were improperly duplicative of other claims for urine drug testing for the same date of service, the same patient, and the same drugs.
RDx and Leykin have agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigations of, and litigation against, other participants in the alleged schemes. The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.