A settlement has been reached to resolve False Claims Act allegations against Pathology Laboratory.
The allegations arose from a lawsuit that claimed Pathology Laboratory violated the False Claims Act by engaging in improper financial relationships with referring physicians.
According to the government, allegedly the company violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law by providing to referring physicians subsidies for electronic health records (EHR) systems and free or discounted technology consulting services. The Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law restrict the financial relationships that health care providers, including laboratories, may have with doctors who refer patients to them. Although regulations adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2006 included provisions that allowed laboratories to provide EHR donations to physicians under certain conditions, the United States alleged that the defendant violated those conditions. HHS withdrew those exemptions for laboratories in 2013.
“The Department of Justice has longstanding concerns about improper financial relationships between health care providers and their referral sources because those relationships can alter a physician’s judgment about the patient’s true health care needs and drive up health care costs for everybody,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “In addition to yielding a substantial recovery for taxpayers, this settlement should deter similar conduct in the future and help make health care more affordable.”
The whistleblowers’ share of the settlement has not yet been determined.
