A California mobile phlebotomy operation, Veni-Express, and its owners, Myrna and Sonny Steinbaum, will collectively pay $135,000 to resolve alleged fraud and Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) violations stemming from home blood draw services and clinical laboratory payment arrangements, according to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) press release that was issued on October 22.
Veni-Express and the Steinbaums, according to the DOJ, knowingly submitted false claims for mobile phlebotomy services to homebound beneficiaries and associated travel mileage and paid kickbacks to a third-party marketer, a laboratory, for services that violated the AKS. The U.S. intervened on August 7.
The DOJ alleges that from 2015 to 2019, Veni-Express and the Steinbaums knowingly submitted false or fraudulent claims to federal healthcare programs. The court record shows that the company performed finger-stick tests to measure blood coagulation time. Neither the tests nor the associated travel time are reimbursable by Medicare.
"Specifically, with the Steinbaum's oversight and approval, Veni-Express submitted false claims for venipuncture (blood draw) procedures that the company did not actually perform during homebound patient visits, and for travel mileage associated with these visits that was not reimbursable by Medicare," the DOJ stated in its press release.
Additionally, from July 2014 to June 2015, Veni-Express allegedly paid unlawful kickbacks in the form of a percentage of company revenue to Altera Laboratories, also known as Med2U Healthcare, for marketing Veni-Express' services, which is in violation of the AKS, according to the release.
The civil settlement resolves claims brought under qui tam, or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, by Banisha Evans, a former phlebotomist for another California provider, and Richard Drummond, a technical director at a Texas laboratory, the DOJ said. The qui tam action was filed in the Eastern District of California.
Under qui tam provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the U.S. for false claims and receive a portion of any recovered funds. The amount to be paid to Evans and Drummond has not yet been determined, according to the DOJ. The settlement agreement also stated that Veni-Puncture will pay the U.S. 50% of the proceeds of any future sale of company property, including software copyright rights.
