A federal jury in Charlotte returned a guilty verdict against a physician assistant, for his role in a genetic testing scheme that resulted in the submission of more than $10 million in fraudulent claims to the Medicare program. Colby Edward Joyner, 35, of Monroe, NC, was convicted of one count of healthcare fraud and six counts of making false statements relating to healthcare matters. According to trial evidence, witness testimony and documents filed with the court, in 2018 and 2019, Joyner was a physician assistant in the Charlotte area who worked as an independent contractor for a physician staffing and telemedicine company. As trial evidence established, during the relevant time frame, Joyner signed fraudulent prescriptions for medically unnecessary genetic testing, specifically cancer genomic and pharmacogenetic testing, for hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries residing in North Carolina. Joyner had never met, seen or treated the beneficiaries, and only had brief telephone conversations with them or no interactions at all.
Trial evidence showed that Joyner received from the telemedicine company and its clients pre-populated prescription forms and related records for patients who were pre-selected for genetic testing, which he then electronically signed and returned, in exchange for $12—and later $15—for each purported consultation that he performed. According to evidence presented at trial, to conceal that Joyner was not the beneficiaries’ treating physician and that he did not conduct medical evaluations or examinations of the beneficiaries, Joyner falsified medical records in connection with the unnecessary prescriptions and falsely certified that the genetic tests were medically necessary. The government’s evidence established that Joyner’s scheme resulted in the submission of more than $10 million in fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare, and more than $3.6 million in payments.
