A laboratory and its owners have agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle federal allegations that they submitted fraudulent claims to government healthcare programs for medically unnecessary urine drug tests.
Genco Lab LLC, and its owners and officers — Paul Conroy, Charles Orefice and Tricia Conroy — entered into a civil settlement agreement with federal and state governments, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut David X. Sullivan announced Wednesday.
The Branford-based laboratory allegedly committed fraud by submitting claims for medically unnecessary urine drug tests for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in sober homes solely for “residential monitoring,” which was prohibited, according to federal prosecutors.
Then, the lab billed for unnecessary duplicative drug testing, authorities said.
Paul Conroy is the majority owner of Genco Lab, while Orefice is a part owner and Tricia Conroy serves as chief operating officer.
The government alleged that Genco routinely conducted both screening and confirmation tests on the same patients — on the same day — without medical justification.
Screening tests, also called “presumptive” tests, detect the presence or absence of drug classes such as opiates, cocaine and amphetamines, providing only positive or negative results.
Confirmation tests, known as “definitive” tests, are more precise and expensive, determining not only whether a drug is present, but also its specific quantity in a patient’s urine sample.
Prosecutors said no practitioner reviewed screening test results to determine whether the more expensive definitive test was medically necessary. As a result, government healthcare programs were billed for both types of tests each time a Medicare or Medicaid patient was tested.
Genco, along with Paul Conroy, Orefice and Tricia Conroy, have agreed to pay a $1,255,825 settlement to resolve the False Claims Act allegations, which span from September 2021 to December 2023.
Also, they have entered into a compliance agreement with the state Department of Social Services, which requires Genco to adopt and implement a new compliance program and return any overpayments found by an independent auditor, according to information from Attorney General William Tong’s office.
