NEW YORK – The US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said on Tuesday that a federal jury has convicted a Chicago doctor for his role in a more than $9.5 million genetic testing scheme.
Benjamin Toh was convicted of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute by ordering thousands of medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests that were ultimately billed to Medicare and Medicaid.
According to federal prosecutors, between March 2019 and September 2019, Toh worked with telemedicine companies that paid him kickbacks in exchange for signed orders for genetic testing. These telemedicine companies then sold these orders to co-conspirator marketing companies that targeted Medicare and Medicaid patients through door-to-door marketing, at senior fairs, at nursing homes, and at other locations and convinced patients to provide their genetic material for testing. The specimens were then sent to a lab in Spring Hill, Tennessee, for cancer genetic testing in exchange for kickbacks, and the lab billed Medicare and Medicaid for the tests.
Toh is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 9. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.