NEW YORK – The owner of a Greensburg, Pennsylvania clinical drug testing lab pleaded guilty last week in federal court to a $1.7 million testing fraud scheme, the US Department of Justine said on Monday.
Pittsburgh resident William Hughes, the owner and operator of Universal Oral Fluid Labs, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Hughes ran a kickback arrangement through UOFL in which he made cash payments for referrals to the lab. These referrals included patients who were covered under Medicare and Kentucky's Medicaid program. He paid the kickbacks from October 2011 to August 2013 and between September 2012 and August 2013. According to the DOJ, UOFL received $1.7 million in payments from the Kentucky Medicaid program for these referrals.
Under the law, Hughes could serve a sentence of up to five years and/or have to pay a fine of $250,000. Sentencing has been set for November 9, 2020.