The US Department of Justice and the Washington State Attorney General settled a False Claims Act investigation involving Seattle Pain Center, Northwest Analytics, and owner/physician Dr. Frank Danger Li. Dr. Li agreed to pay $2.85 million to state and federal authorities to settle allegations his companies billed government entities for medically unnecessary urine drug tests. Dr. Li’s seven pain clinics closed in July 2016 when the Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission suspended his medical license for improperly monitoring prescriptions of powerful opioids. According to the settlement agreement, in addition to his pain clinics, Dr. Li owned drug-testing labs in Seattle and Everett. Northwest Analytics did urine drug testing for Li’s clinics. In July 2013, Li instituted a policy that, in nearly every instance, each patient being treated at Seattle Pain Centers had to have a full urine drug test panel every time they were seen by a provider. This policy resulted in thousands of medically unnecessary tests. The testing protocol did not follow state standards which recommended random testing of up to four times per year.
