An independent clinical laboratory and its owner have been indicted in connection with Medicaid fraud and larceny involving urine drug tests that allegedly caused over $400,000 in false claims to be submitted to the Massachusetts Medicaid health insurance program, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced today. According to the AG’s Office, Solid Diagnostics, Inc. of Burlington and its owner, Rita Ausiejus of Acton, were indicted by a statewide grand jury last month on two counts each of Medicaid False Claims, Medicaid Reverse False Claims and Larceny over $1,200. They are set to be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court on March 21.
The AG’s Office alleges that Solid and Ausiejus submitted claims to MassHealth for urine drug tests that were not appropriately ordered by physicians or other authorized prescribers and urine drug tests which were for medically unnecessary residential sobriety monitoring purposes. Under state regulations, laboratories may not bill MassHealth for tests performed at sober homes for residential monitoring purposes because such tests are not medically necessary. By fraudulently billing MassHealth and its managed care entities for these tests, the defendants are alleged to have caused over $400,000 in false claims. These charges are the latest development in the work of the AG’s Office to address kickbacks and false claims among Medicaid providers, particularly independent clinical laboratories.
