Sept. 22, 2020
Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces $11.5 Million Settlement With Biotech Testing Company For Fraudulent Billing And Kickback Practices
Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Scott J. Lampert, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General ("HHS OIG"), and Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Field Office of the U.S. Department of Defense - Office of Inspector General's Defense Criminal Investigative Service ("DCIS"), announced today an $11 .5 million settlement of a False Claims Act case against BIO-REFERENCE LABORATORIES, INC. ("BRL"), a New Jersey-based biotechnology company that provides molecular and diagnostic tests. The settlement resolves claims that from 2009 to 2012, BRL fraudulently billed federal healthcare programs for testing conducted on hospital inpatients that should have been billed to the hospitals instead, and that BRL knowingly donated the cost of electronic medical records software to physicians' offices throughout the country based solely on the volume of business generated by those practices, in violation of the False Claims Act and the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Under the settlement approved by U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels, BRL will pay $11 ,500,960.00 to the United States to resolve the fraudulent billing and kickback claims. BRL also made extensive admissions regarding the company's conduct.