The United States District Court for the District of South Carolina has entered $140 million in default judgements against a group of South Carolina pain management clinics, drug testing laboratories, and a substance abuse counseling center. This combined judgment is one of the largest ever False Claims Act judgments in the District of South Carolina. In its Complaint, filed on May 31, 2019, the United States alleged the pain management clinics and drug testing laboratories — all of which were owned or operated by chiropractor Daniel McCollum — provided illegal financial incentives to doctors and mid-level providers to induce the referrals of urinary drug tests, in violation of the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute.
The United States also alleged the pain management clinics, laboratories, and a substance abuse counseling clinic billed federal healthcare programs for unnecessary urinary drug testing. Finally, the United State alleged the pain management clinics billed or caused to be billed false claims for steroid injections, opioid prescriptions, and lidocaine ointment prescriptions because the injections and prescriptions were medically unnecessary and/or lacked a legitimate medical purpose.
