Three Docs Pay $700K to Settle False Claims Act Allegations

Federal prosecutors accused the three physicians in three states of Stark Act violations involving improper financial relationships with a now-defunct drug testing lab.

Three physicians in three states have separately agreed to settle allegations that they each received improper payments for referrals from a drug testing lab in Pennsylvania, and filed false claims for the services with Medicare, the Department of Justice announced.

The three physicians were identified as: Robert Fetchero, DO, of Jeannette, Pennsylvania; Sridhar Pinnamaneni, MD, of Windermere, Florida; and Thelma Green-Mack, MD, of Zionsville, Indiana. Under the agreement, Fetchero will pay $200,000; Pinnamaneni will pay $370,000; and Green-Mack will pay $130,000, DOJ said.
The settlements follow the guilty plea last year on related charges by John H. Johnson, MD, of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, who had served as medical director at Universal Oral Fluid Laboratories, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Johnson, 56, was sentenced to seven years in prison last year for income tax evasion and accepting kickbacks, DOJ said.
According to DOJ, UOFL, which was owned and operated by William Hughes, paid the three physicians to refer their patients to the lab for drug tests; UOFL then submitted claims to Medicare for the drug testing services from 2011 to 2014, a violation of the Stark Law prohibiting self-referrals. Hughes, 70, of Pittsburgh, was indicted earlier this year on related charges, DOJ said.
UOFL has been inactive since March 2014, when federal officials served a search warrant on the premises.
"The integrity of the relationship between patients and their doctors is sacrosanct. A physician’s medical judgment should never be compromised by improper financial incentives," said Scott W. Brady, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. "We will continue to hold healthcare providers accountable when they enter into financial arrangements that violate the law."