U.S. Justice Department Charges 35 People In Fraudulent Genetic Testing Scheme
NPR Online NewsSep 27, 2019
A Georgia man who owned LabSolutions LLC — a genetic testing lab registered with Medicare — has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in a $463M fraud, the US Justice Department said on Friday.
Minal Patel was convicted last December for healthcare fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and payment of illegal healthcare kickbacks.
Billing the federal government for the bogus medical work and related kickbacks and bribes impacts the entire country because it erodes patients' confidence and costs taxpayers billions. Patel placed his greed before the needs of the people he was supposed to serve and bilked hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicare through a fraudulent scheme — he must pay the price for his criminal deeds.
To prevent Medicare beneficiaries from being victimized and discourage criminals from exploiting the promise of new medical technologies for financial gain, the government must slow down the pace at which information about genetic testing is disseminated and implement safeguards. It must audit every laboratory, doctor, and telemedicine company associated with the healthcare program to check if they meet their ethical obligations and hire enough agents to keep up with the various schemes.
There's a 99% chance that there will be a breakthrough in accurately predicting protein structure before 2031, according to the Metaculus prediction community.