NEW YORK — The US Department of Justice said this week that the US District Court for the District of Maryland has entered default judgments totaling $26.3 million against a lab owner for violations of the False Claims Act.
According to the government, Patrick Britton-Harr and lab firms he owned and operated including Provista Health billed Medicare for medically unnecessary respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) tests during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The court entered the judgments against Britton-Harr after he and his companies failed to defend against the government's allegations.
In its complaint, the government alleged that Britton-Harr and his companies billed Medicare for unnecessary RPP tests he provided to nursing homes as part of COVID-19 testing. According to the complaint, these tests were unnecessary because the patients had no symptoms of a respiratory illness and the tests were for uncommon respiratory pathogens.
The complaint also alleged that Britton-Harr and his companies submitted claims to Medicare for tests that were never ordered by physicians and, in some cases, for tests that were never performed, including more than 300 claims in which samples were said to be collected on a date after the supposed patient had died.
On July 18, 2023, the government filed an application for prejudgment remedies seeking to attach and garnish some of Britton-Harr's assets and to determine if he had the funds needed to satisfy a judgment against him. On Sept. 23, 2023, he sold his Annapolis, Maryland, house for $575,000 and spent the proceeds. Following that, the court on March 4, 2024, granted the government's motion to hold Britton-Harr in civil contempt and ordered him to deposit $575,000 with the court's registry.