(WFRV) – A Wisconsin man was sentenced on March 21 to 21 months in prison for paying healthcare kickbacks in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, as well as a restitution payment of over $2 million to Medicaid and Medicare with a $75,000 fine.
According to a release from Richard G. Frohling, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Justin Drew Hanson and his co-defendant, Mohammad Kazim Ali, who was sentenced in January to 15 months in prison on similar charges, owned a Milwaukee-area clinical labratory called ‘Noah Associates.’
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In 2017, the two worked on a three-year scheme to pay kickpacks to a Milwaukee substance use treatment clinic owner in return for referrals of Medicaid and Medicare patients for urine drug testing.
“The Anti-Kickback Statute “prohibits the knowing and willful payment of “remuneration” to induce or reward patient referrals or the generation of business involving any item or service payable by the Federal health care programs.”
The duo produced false agreements to conceal the fraud, paying about $400,000 in kickpacks for these tests, which weren’t ordered by any physician and unnecessary for treatment.
Medicaid and Medicare paid Noah Associates over $2.2 million for these tests. Hanson received several hundred thousand dollars during this scheme.
United States District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller emphasized that Hanson manipulated and breached the trust of two important programs to receieve millions of dollars he didn’t earn. Judge Stadtmueller specifically noted that he stole from ‘every taxpayer in the country.’
Allong with the prison sentence, fines and $2.2 million in restitution, Hanson will no longer be allowed to participate in either Medicaid and Medicare; in addition, Noah Associates has been shut down.
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“Rather than bill the government for tests that patients truly needed, Hanson abused the Medicaid and Medicare programs for his own benefit,” Acting U.S. Attorney Frohling said via the release. “The United States Attorney’s Office is committed to working with its law enforcement partners to hold individuals who engage in these schemes accountable for their actions.”
No additional details were provided.
