FLORIDA – A lab owner convicted of his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare has been ordered to forfeit over $187 million in health care fraud proceeds, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida (USAO).
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Minal Patel, 44, of Atlanta, who owned LabSolutions LLC (LabSolutions), was ordered to forfeit over $187 million in health care fraud proceeds, including over $30 million seized from personal and corporate bank accounts, a 2018 Red Ferrari Spider, a 2019 Land Rover Range Rover, and real property. U.S. District Court Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz, in Miami, signed the order on Sept. 22.
LabSolutions, a lab enrolled with Medicare, performed sophisticated genetic tests. Patel was convicted of conspiring with patient brokers, telemedicine companies, and call centers to target Medicare beneficiaries with telemarketing calls falsely stating that Medicare covered expensive cancer genetic tests.
After the Medicare beneficiaries agreed to take a test, Patel is said to have paid kickbacks and bribes to patient brokers to obtain signed doctors’ orders authorizing the tests from telemedicine companies.
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To conceal the kickbacks and bribes, Patel reportedly required patient brokers to sign sham contracts that falsely stated that the brokers were performing legitimate advertising services for LabSolutions, when, as Patel well knew, the brokers were deceptively marketing to Medicare beneficiaries and paying kickbacks and bribes to telemedicine companies for genetic testing prescriptions, said the USAO.
Patel knew the telemedicine doctors robo-signed prescriptions for expensive genetic testing even though they were not treating the beneficiaries, often did not even speak with them, and made no evaluation of medical necessity, the USAO said.
From July 2016 through August 2019, LabSolutions submitted more than $463 million in claims to Medicare, including for thousands of medically unnecessary genetic tests, of which Medicare paid over $187 million.
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Patel reportedly enriched himself with the fruits of his crimes, including purchasing luxury items like a 2018 Red Ferrari Spider.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI, Miami Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Region, made the announcement.
FBI Miami and HHS-OIG Miami investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Jamie de Boer, Emily Gurskis, Reginald Cuyler Jr., Katherine Rookard, and Patrick Queenan of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marx Calderon handled the asset forfeiture proceedings.
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