Worcester lab indicted as part of alleged $8M MassHealth fraud
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Central Lab Partners is located at 124 W Boylston St. in Worcester.
Charges have been brought against a Worcester clinical lab and its owner for their alleged participation in a MassHealth fraud scheme resulting in $7.8 million in false claims.
Central Lab Partners and its owner Cynthia Norton of West Boylston were among seven entities indicted on Monday by the Suffolk County Statewide Grand Jury following charges brought by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
Of the $7.8 million among the seven entities, the attorney general alleges CLP submitted approximately $1.4 million in false claims, the AGO’s office wrote to WBJ.
CLP allegedly submitted false claims to MassHealth for urine drug tests and home health services for those at sober living homes that were never performed, were medically unnecessary, and/or were not appropriately ordered by a doctor, according to a Wednesday press release from the AGO’s office.
For its alleged involvement, CLP has been charged with counts of Medicaid false claims, larceny over $1,200, and Medicaid kickbacks.
Norton told WBJ she has plenty of comments on the indictments but cannot provide them right now on advice from her attorney. Both of CLP’s phone lines appeared to be down.
CLP, along with Patient Care Solutions of Danvers, allegedly targeted sober homes in need of frequent urine drug tests for patients for sobriety monitoring. The charges allege the companies enrolled the homes’ patients in urine drug tests and home health services, submitting claims to MassHealth even though sober home compliance services are not medically necessary under the state insurance’s requirements.
To allegedly make the services appear physician-authorized and medically necessary, PCS made payments to Falmouth-based physician Dr. Maria Batilo, who was neither seeing nor treating the patients. In return, Batilo would allegedly authorize PCS’s home health services and CLP’s related drug test orders.
Batilo has received Medicaid excess charges.
Separately, CLP is accused of taking part in an alleged kickback scheme in which New Bedford-based clinic Optimum Labs referred drug tests to CLP in return for a share of related insurance reimbursements.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
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