With a recent $2 million settlement, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has now pulled in tens of millions of dollars related to the decade-plus-old Boston Heart Diagnostics case, which centered around alleged kickbacks to doctors for sometimes unnecessary lab tests.
In addition to civil settlements, company executives were convicted in a criminal trial for their roles in the kickback scheme.
The case began with two whistleblower lawsuits, the first of which was filed in 2012 and re-filed in 2016. It alleged that Boston Heart "provided illegal kickbacks in several forms" to doctors and clinics in order to induce them to refer Medicare business to the lab company.
DOJ picked up the case, alleging that between 2015 and 2017, the Massachusetts-based company -- known for comprehensive cardiovascular testing -- partnered with small hospitals in Texas, including critical access hospitals, collaborating with the hospitals' independent marketers. Those marketers set up companies known as marketing service organizations (MSOs) to make payments to referring physicians that were disguised as investment returns.
The physicians allegedly referred patients to the Texas hospitals and Boston Heart for lab tests, which were then billed to federal insurance programs, pulling in large amounts of money, the DOJ said.
