Doctor submitted bills to state and federal medical programs for tests that were not conducted
Seattle – The U.S. Department of Justice and a Federal Way, Washington general-practice doctor have settled allegations that the doctor billed government health programs for urine drug tests that were never performed or performed too late to be useful, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. Dr. Vuthy Leng is the sole owner and operator of Family Medicine Clinic of Federal Way LLC. Dr. Leng will pay state and federal health programs $228,000 to resolve allegations that Dr. Leng billed government health programs for useless urine drug tests.
According to the settlement agreement, the Federal Way clinic had a certified lab, capable of performing urine drug tests so that patients could be screened for appropriate prescribing of medications including substance use disorder treatment. Between January 1, 2019 and July 30, 2019, Dr. Leng submitted bills to Medicare and Medicaid for urine drug tests. In fact, for long periods during this timeframe, the medical equipment for testing urine was broken, the samples were simply frozen for testing at a later date. Some were never tested at all.
While not admitting the allegations in the settlement, Leng will pay $76,000 in restitution to the government medical programs. Under the False Claims Act, the government can seek treble damages resulting in an additional $152,000 to be paid by Dr. Leng over the next 12 months. The amount will be split between the state and federal programs based on the share each paid of the false bills.
Under the terms of the settlement each party will pay their own legal fees.
The matter was investigated by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the Washington State Health Care Authority and Washington Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Division.
Assistant United States Attorney Nickolas Bohl negotiated the settlement for the U.S. Department of Justice.
{jcomments on}