Six Texas physicians were added to a lab testing kickback and false claims lawsuit that originally named 18 people, including four former healthcare executives, and two lab companies as defendants, the Justice Department said May 26.
Lab executives and employees of True Health Diagnostics and Boston Heart Diagnostics allegedly conspired with Texas hospitals to pay physicians to refer patients to hospitals for lab testing performed by the two lab companies.
The six new physician defendants, Doyce Cartrett Jr., MD; Elizabeth Seymour, MD; Emmanuel Descant, MD; Frederick Brown, MD; Heriberto Salinas, MD; and Hong Davis, MD, allegedly received more than $860,000 collectively from lab test referral kickbacks, the department said.
Claims were submitted to federal healthcare programs for the lab tests, including some that were allegedly medically unnecessary, the department said.
The department said it has recovered more than $31 million from settlements related to the case.