BestCare Laboratory Services LLC (BestCare), a now defunct Texas-based company that operated as a clinical laboratory, and its owner and founder, Karim A. Maghareh, have agreed to pay an additional $5.7 million to settle an outstanding False Claims Act judgment against them. The judgment was entered in 2018 after a court found that BestCare knowingly submitted false claims to Medicare, as directed by Maghareh, by billing for travel allowance reimbursements that did not reflect the mileage that lab technicians had actually traveled when they collected specimens from nursing home residents in Texas. The settlement is designed to resolve BestCare and Maghareh’s outstanding obligation under the 2018 judgment. The settlement provides for payments totaling $5.7 million and the possibility of additional annual payments for five years based on Maghareh’s future income. These payments are in addition to $789,652 that the United States has already collected since 2018.
