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problems_using_pcr_to_detect_sars-cov-2 [2021/11/05 04:06]
mathew created		problems_using_pcr_to_detect_sars-cov-2 [2023/02/09 17:19] (current)
pamela [California Fraud Settlement]
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 ===== Problems Using PCR to Detect SARS-CoV-2 ===== ===== Problems Using PCR to Detect SARS-CoV-2 =====
 There are numerous problems using [[rt-PCR]] for the detection of viruses and for [[SARS-CoV-2]] specifically. There are numerous problems using [[rt-PCR]] for the detection of viruses and for [[SARS-CoV-2]] specifically.
 +
 +{{ :pcr_explanation.mp4 |}}
 +
 +Video Source: Panda (to be confirmed)
 +
 +==== History of Diagnostic Fraud ====
 +{{ ::labcorp_billing_fraud.png?400|}}
 +Meet the Company That Outlined Its Kickback Scheme in PowerPoint
 +CBS News Aug 31, 2011 By Jim Edwards - MoneyWatch
 +
 +The scheme wasn't difficult to figure out -- the company described it in PowerPoint slideshows that told employees what "not" to do. Prohibiting employees from breaking the law is fine, of course, but the [[:Labcorp]] slideshows only made sense if the company knew how to execute a complicated "pull-through" kickback scheme, and knew it was wrong. One PowerPoint had a chapter labelled "Kickbacks."
 +
 +In the Labcorp settlement, the company will pay $49.5 million to settle allegations that 5.5 million claims for reimbursement from the state's Medi-Cal program, spread over 14 years through 2009, were overbilled by $72 million. About 79 percent of all Labcorp's Medi-Cal testing invoices were overbilled, the whistleblower lawsuit that triggered the settlement claims.
 +
 +In May, the state settled a similar case against [[:Quest Diagnostics]] (DGX) for $241 million. Both companies were accused of doing the same thing: Providing millions of dollars in low-cost or below-cost testing to private insurance companies in return for those companies requiring doctors serving their network to refer Medi-Cal patients to Labcorp and Quest for testing. Labcorp and Quest then billed Medi-Cal much greater amounts for identical tests. Labcorp offered tests to private companies for as little as $1, the suit claims.
 +
 +Federal prosecutors, however, do not appear to be interested in finding out whether this practice extended into [[:Medicare]] nationally or other states' [[:Medicaid]] plans. In the Quest case, which is on appeal, the U.S. Department of Justice officially declined to get involved. In Labcorp and Quest's 10-Q disclosures to the SEC neither company notes any federal investigations or litigation regarding their billing in other states. ((https://web.archive.org/web/20150616142217/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-company-that-outlined-its-kickback-scheme-in-powerpoint/))
 +
 +==== California AG Lab Fraud Lawsuit ====
 +
 +FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 +Friday, March 20, 2009
 +Contact: Office of the Attorney General - Christine Gasparac (916) 324-5500
 +Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy - Niall McCarthy (650) 697-6000
 +
 +{{ ::calif_ag_lab_fraud_suit.png?600|}}
 +Brown Sues to Recover Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Illegally Diverted from Medi-Cal
 +
 +LOS ANGELES – Responding to a whistleblower’s allegation of “massive Medi-Cal fraud and kickbacks,” Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. joined legal action against seven private laboratories to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal overcharges to the state’s medical program for the poor.
 +
 +“In the face of declining state revenues, these medical laboratories have siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars from programs intended for the most vulnerable California families.” Attorney General Brown said. “Such a pattern of massive Medi-Cal fraud and kickbacks cannot be tolerated, and I will take every action the law allows to recover what is owed,” Brown added.
 +
 +According to whistleblower Chris Riedel, the CEO of Hunter Laboratories, “I confirmed with the California Department of Health Care Services that these practices were illegal. We then had a choice--either join the other labs in violating the law or be unable to compete for business. We choose to suffer the financial consequence, and follow the law.”
 +
 +The lawsuit, which is pending in San Mateo Superior Court, contends that the 7 medical labs systematically overcharged the Medi-Cal program over the past 15 years.
 +
 +The defendants include-
 +  * • Quest Diagnostics, Inc., based in Madison, NJ; its affiliate Specialty Laboratories, Inc., based in Valencia, CA; and 4 other Quest affiliates.
 +  * • Health Line Clinical Laboratories, Inc., now known as Taurus West, Inc., based in Burbank, CA.
 +  * • Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Inc., based in Santa Ana, CA.
 +  * • Physicians Immunodiagnostic Laboratory, Inc., based in Burbank, CA.
 +  * • Whitefield Medical Laboratory, Inc., based in Pomona, CA.
 +  * • Seacliff Diagnostics Medical Group, based in Monterey Park, CA.
 +  * • Laboratory Corporation of America, based in Burlington, NC.
 +
 +California law states that 'no provider shall charge [Medi-Cal] for any service…more than would have been charged for the same service…to other purchasers of comparable services…under comparable circumstances.' Yet, these medical laboratories charged Medi-Cal up to six times as much as they charged some of their other customers for the very same tests. ((https://web.archive.org/web/20150908013628/http://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/brown-sues-recover-hundreds-millions-dollars-illegally-diverted-medi-cal))
 +
 +==== California Fraud Settlement ====
 +Thursday, May 19, 2011
 +Contact: (415) 703-5837, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov
 +
 +SACRAMENTO --- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced a $241 million settlement - the largest recovery in the history of California's False Claims Act - with Quest Diagnostics, the state's biggest provider of medical laboratory testing, of a lawsuit alleging illegal overcharges to the state's medical program for the poor.
 +
 +"In a time of shrinking budgets, this historic settlement affirms that Medi-Cal exists to help the state's neediest families rather than to illicitly line private pockets,' said Attorney General Harris. 'Medi-Cal providers and others who try to cheat the state through false claims and illegal kickbacks should know that my office is watching and will prosecute.'
 +
 +The settlement with Quest is the result of a lawsuit filed under court seal in 2005 by a whistleblower and referred to the Attorney General's office. The lawsuit alleged that Quest systematically overcharged the state's Medi-Cal program for more than 15 years and gave illegal kickbacks in the form of discounted or free testing to doctors, hospitals and clinics that referred Medi-Cal patients and other business to the labs.((https://web.archive.org/web/20160322120159/http://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-kamala-d-harris-announces-241-million-settlement-quest))
 +
 +==== Whistleblower Lawsuit 2018 ====
 +
 +February 6, 2023
 +
 +By: Pamela Coyle Brecht , Marc Stephen Raspanti , Michael A. Morse , Ashley Kenny
 +
 +PHILADELPHIA, PA (February 6, 2023) – Two whistleblowers from Florence, South Carolina, Scarlett Lutz and Kayla Webster, have resolved their 10-year qui tam lawsuit against Laboratory Corporation of America, Inc. (“Labcorp”), one of the largest laboratories in the world, for $19 million. 
 +
 +The whistleblowers alleged that [[:Labcorp]], with the knowledge and approval of its senior executives, had participated in a conspiracy to violate the False Claims Act (“FCA”) by providing blood draws to their healthcare provider customers who were receiving cash kickbacks from Health Diagnostics Laboratories (“HDL”) and/or [[:Singulex]], Inc. (“Singulex”) as part of a complex healthcare fraud scheme. 
 +
 +Relators and their counsel vigorously pursued these claims after the United States declined to intervene in May 2018 and resolved this matter just as a three-week jury trial was about to begin in early January 2023 before the Honorable Richard M. Gergel in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina in Charleston. Labcorp has denied all allegations in Relators’ Fourth Amended Complaint and has not admitted any liability as part of the executed settlement.
 +
 +The $19 million settlement against Labcorp follows earlier settlements with corporate defendants HDL and Singulex, as well as judgments against the individuals who concocted and carried out the massive kickback fraud.
 +
 +In October 2014, HDL agreed to an ability-to-pay settlement of $47 million, with the potential of $100 million if certain contingencies occurred. HDL declared bankruptcy in 2015 after paying a fraction of the settlement to the government. HDL’s complex bankruptcy proceedings continue in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Richmond. Singulex also entered into an ability-to-pay settlement for a minimum of $1.5 million before going out of business.((https://web.archive.org/web/20230209160428/https://www.pietragallo.com/news/19-million-settlement-in-non-intervened-south-carolina-false-claims-act-case-against-laboratory-corporation-of-america/))
 +
 +==== 2018 Qui Tam False Claims Lawsuit pdf ==== 
 +{{ ::labcor_kickback_suit_2018.png?400|}}
 +INTRODUCTION
 +This qui tam action alleges violations of the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C. § 3729, et seq., the California Insurance Fraud Prevention Act (“CIFPA”), Cal. Ins. Code § 1871, et seq; and the Illinois Insurance Claims Fraud Prevention Act (“ILCFPA”), 740 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 92/1, et seq., related to a clinical laboratory testing conspiracy carried out by Defendant
 +Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (“LabCorp”). From early 2010 until at least mid- 2014, Defendant LabCorp provided illegal financial inducements to physicians in exchange for referrals of patients for a variety of laboratory tests. 
 +
 +Defendant LabCorp’s financial relationships with referring physicians violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”), and result in the submission of false claims in violation of the federal FCA, the CIFPA, and the ILCFPA.
 +Defendant LabCorp also conspired with third parties Health Diagnostic Laboratory, Inc. (“HDL”) and Singulex, Inc. (“Singulex”) to violate the federal FCA by facilitating HDL’s((https://web.archive.org/web/20230209155739/https://www.falseclaimsact.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2018.06.26_Fourth-Amended-Qui-Tam-Complaint.pdf))
  
 ==== Link Dump ==== ==== Link Dump ====
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 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.26.20080911v4 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.26.20080911v4
 +
 +https://archive.org/details/kary-mullis-the-full-interview-by-gary-null-1996
  
  
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