Wisconsin-based Pharmasan Labs, Inc., NeuroScience, Inc., as well as two of their executives, have reached an $8.5 million settlement agreement with the federal government. As the Relator in the whistleblower case, former Pharmasan Labs employee Richard Forrest will receive $1.13 million as his portion of the settlement.
Pharmasan is a laboratory in Osceola, Wisconsin that performs medical lab testing in the areas of neurology, endocrinology, and immunology. NeuroScience is an associated corporation founded by Pharmasan that bills Medicare for Pharmasan’s services. This settlement resolves claims that the labs violated the False Claims Act and committed healthcare fraud by deliberately billing Medicare for ineligible lab tests. The settlement also resolves allegations that the labs submitted tests for reimbursement to Medicare that were not performed by approved physicians, and in fact were not performed by physicians at all.
According to Department of Justice information, the labs were accused of billing Medicare for millions of dollars’ worth of lab tests that did not meet federal reimbursement guidelines. Many of the tests were ineligible for reimbursement because they were medically unnecessary or experimental, most frequently involving testing for food sensitivities which is not a medical service covered by Medicare....