There are numerous problems using rt-PCR for the detection of viruses and for SARS-CoV-2 specifically.

Video Source: Panda (to be confirmed)

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. ¹⁾

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

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. ²⁾

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.³⁾

Use these links to build out this article:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.26.20080911v4

https://archive.org/details/kary-mullis-the-full-interview-by-gary-null-1996