$48.5 million settlement with Health Diagnostics Laboratory, Inc. and Singulex, Inc. -

On April 9, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") announced a $48.5 million settlement with two cardiovascular diagnostic testing laboratories, Health Diagnostics Laboratory Inc. of Richmond, VA and Singulex Inc., of Alameda, CA, to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by paying physicians in exchange for patient referrals and billing federal health care programs for unnecessary testing. The settlement arises out of a qui tam complaint originally filed in 2013 by a billing service provider and a nursing supervisor who were familiar with the operations of one of the physicians involved in this arrangement.

As alleged in the lawsuits, the laboratories induced physicians to refer patients to them for blood tests by paying them processing and handling fees of between $10 and $17 per referral and by routinely waiving patient co-pays and deductibles. As a result, physicians allegedly referred patients to these laboratories for medically unnecessary tests, which were then billed to federal health care programs, including Medicare.