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Michigan Pain Center Owner Pays $6.5M to Settle Lab Fraud Claims

NEW YORK – The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said last week that the owner of two Michigan-based pain management centers has agreed to pay $6.5 million to resolve claims that he violated the federal False Claims Act.

The US Department of Justice alleges that between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2018, Rajendra Bothra, an interventional pain management specialist and owner of the Pain Center USA and Interventional Pain Center, billed Medicare and Medicaid for a variety of excessive and medically unnecessary services.

According to the DOJ, Bothra and his centers billed the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for urine drug tests that were not relevant to their patients' diagnosis or treatment as well as lab charges not separately billable with the urine drug tests.

They are also alleged to have billed CMS for medically unnecessary moderate sedation services and back braces that were medically unnecessary or otherwise ineligible for reimbursement.

The civil settlement resolves claims in two separate lawsuits brought by whistleblowers under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. Those whistleblowers will receive a combined payment of $1.3 million as part of the settlement.