Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey
June 8, 2022
Worcester lab charged in urine testing kickback probe
By Laura Finaldi
A Worcester laboratory was among those charged Monday as part of a MassHealth fraud case involving urine drug testing.
Preferred Laboratory LLC of Worcester and its owner, Vipin Adhlakha of Westfield, Ind., were implicated in a scheme that resulted in more than $2 million in false claims billed to the state insurance system MassHealth, according to a Tuesday press release from the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Defendants were indicted Monday by a statewide grand jury, the release said, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
At Preferred and his other labs, Alpha Labs LLC of East Providence, R.I. and Aria Diagnostics, LLC of Indianapolis, Adhlakha allegedly engaged in kickback relationships with marketing companies OSA Exports in Southbridge and Summit Diagnostics in Salem, N.H. to increase the number of urine drug tests referred to his laboratories in exchange for a percentage of collected insurance reimbursements, which is a violation of Massachusetts anti-kickback statute.
Adhlakha and his companies also allegedly engaged in a separate kickback relationship with Lab USA of Haverhill, which involved the referral of urine samples for testing in exchange for a percentage of collected insurance reimbursements. The AG’s office alleges Adhlakha and his companies submitted claims to MassHealth not appropriately ordered by physicians, had false dates on the claims, and were for medically unnecessary routine quantitative testing and residential monitoring purposes.
OSA Exports, Summit Diagnostics, and Lab USA all allegedly conspired with Adhlakha and his companies to engage in illegal kickback relationships, resulting in thousands of claims to MassHealth and its managed care entities, the AG’s office said.
Defendants will be arraigned at a later date in Suffolk Superior Court. Among the 12 defendants is Shrewsbury resident Adriana Sanchez, also known as Adriana Vaccaro, who was charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of kickbacks, bribery, or rebates, according to the AG’s office.
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