New Delhi: ‘Negative’ COVID-19 test results, 380,000 PCR tests, and a $66.2-million fraud scheme. And it’s all alleged to be made in America. By an Indian-origin man.
Rajesh ‘Raj’ Patel, Chief Operating Officer of a clinical laboratory in Illinois, US has been charged with submitting $66.2 million in fraudulent claims for COVID-19 tests that were never conducted, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said Tuesday.
The Department of Justice statement said that a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois returned an indictment on 19 October charging 52-year-old Patel from Schaumburg in Illinois with a $66.2-million fraud scheme in which he allegedly “billed for hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests that were never performed”.
“This defendant allegedly exploited a global crisis for personal gain, fabricating hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests – then billing the taxpayer for it,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s Fraud Division.
Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ethridge of the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) said that the COVID-19 pandemic required an unprecedented investment of public resources to protect the health and well-being of our communities. “As alleged, this scheme exploited a federally funded program created to ensure uninsured individuals had access to critical testing services during a national emergency,” he said.
Laboratory, tests, and bills
According to court documents, “Patel was the co-owner and Chief Operating Officer of a clinical laboratory located in Hillside, Illinois, that processed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“In around March 2021, Patel’s laboratory entered into an agreement with Meridian Medical Staffing Inc. (Meridian). The laboratory paid Meridian tens of millions of dollars for collecting test specimens and providing the laboratory with the specimens and biological information of the purported patients. In reality, many of these patients never existed or never provided test specimens to Meridian.”
Further, the court documents state that between May 2021 and April 2022, “Patel allegedly created fake “negative” test results for at least 380,000 PCR tests on specimens provided by Meridian.”
The laboratory never actually performed these tests.
“Patel allegedly created the fake ‘negative’ test results so that the laboratory could fraudulently bill the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Uninsured Program, a federally funded program that covered the costs of COVID-19 tests for individuals without health insurance coverage,” the DoJ said.
Patel’s laboratory submitted approximately $66.2 million in fraudulent claims to HRSA as a result of Patel’s scheme, and HRSA paid the laboratory approximately $44.1 million due to these fraudulent claims. Patel personally obtained approximately $28 million in proceeds from the scheme, the DoJ said as per the court documents.
Patel is charged with five counts of wire fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.
The Department of Justice’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, currently comprising nine strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programmes and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007.
In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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