Millennium Health to pay Georgia $6.5M to resolve allegations of unnecessary drug testing

Millennium Health LLC, formerly Millennium Labs, will pay $6.5 million to Georgia as part of settlement to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act for billing Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs for unnecessary urine drug and genetic testing.

Georgia's settlement is part of a nationwide agreement with Millennium Health in which the company will pay $250 million. The nationwide settlement announced in October 2015 followed claims from the U.S. Justice Department, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 29 states and the District of Columbia, saying that Millennium encouraged excessive testing, including for things patients weren't suspected of taking.

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens announced on Thursday that about half of the $6.5 million settlement will be returned to the federal government, which pays a portion of Medicaid expenditures. An estimated $3.1 million will be returned to the Georgia Department of Community Health, and a percentage will go to the whistleblowers that initiated the investigation, Atlanta Biz Journals reported.

Attorney General Sam Olens said that Georgia's intervention in the lawsuit reflects his commitment to fighting health care fraud. "Medical decisions must be based on the needs of the individual, not who comes into the office with the best free product," said Olens.

Georgia was one of only three states to intervene in the litigation and filed a lawsuit against Millennium in May 2015. The states alleged that Millennium systematically billed federal healthcare programs for excessive and unnecessary urine drug testing from Jan 2008 to May 2015, according to Justice News.

The states alleged that Millennium caused the submission false claims through the use of "custom profiles", instead of individualized assessment of need.

Georgia and other states also alleged that Millennium gave physicians free point of care urine testing cups in exchange for confirming all screenings through Millennium. The action violated the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute which generally prohibit laboratories from giving physicians any benefit in exchange for referrals of tests.

In addition, Millennium also agreed to pay $10 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that it submitted false claims to federal healthcare programs. The company also will pay $19.2 million to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to resolve certain administrative actions related to urine drug test billing practices.

One month after settling the federal claims, Millenium Health filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of District of Delaware, to remove a $1.8 billion debt, according to Dow Jones Bankruptcy & Debt.

However, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein lifted a stay of her order confirming Millennium's chapter 11 plan in December 2015. The lender, Voya Financial, claimed that Millennium's bankruptcy plan improperly shields the company's owners from fallout over the financing.

Tags

Millennium Health, Georgia, Settlement, Medicaid, Medicare, U.S. Justice Department, Healthcare

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