Jamie P. McNamara, age 48, of Missouri, and John M. Spivey, age 53, of New Orleans, were charged by a grand jury on May 10, 2024, in an 18-count superseding indictment for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, healthcare fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, offering and paying kickbacks, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering. McNamara was previously charged in the original indictment, returned on July 14, 2022, and the May 10, 2024, superseding indictment added Spivey. According to the superseding indictment, McNamara and Spivey orchestrated a scheme to defraud Medicare by billing for cancer genetic testing and cardiovascular genetic testing that was ineligible for Medicare reimbursement because the testing was not medically necessary and was procured through the payment of illegal kickbacks and bribes.
McNamara and Spivey operated several laboratories, which obtained doctors’ orders for genetic testing from telemarketers and call centers that used aggressive telemarketing campaigns to induce Medicare beneficiaries to agree to receive genetic testing. Orders for genetic testing were signed by purported telemedicine doctors who were not the beneficiaries’ treating physicians, did not perform consultations with the beneficiaries, and did not follow up with the beneficiaries after the testing was performed. The superseding indictment alleges that from in or around November 2018 through July 2020, the laboratories operated by McNamara and Spivey submitted over $174 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for genetic testing and received over $55 million in reimbursements. Following receipt of proceeds, McNamara and Spivey conspired to and did launder the funds. The government seized several luxury vehicles and over $7 million in bank accounts.
