NEW YORK – A laboratory owner in Tennessee was sentenced to probation, home detention, and community service for committing healthcare fraud with her husband, the US Attorney's Office Western District of Virginia announced Wednesday.
Regan Dube, owner of American Toxicology Labs in Johnson City, Tennessee, was sentenced to three years of probation, four months of home detention, and 400 hours of community service after allowing her husband to participate in a federal healthcare program from which he was banned.
Michael Dube pleaded guilty in 2011 to intentionally omitting required information from reports and was excluded from participating in any federal healthcare program. In 2013, the Dubes established their laboratory and applied to participate in Medicare and Medicaid, excluding Michael Dube's name from the application. The laboratory offered urine screenings for opioid treatment facilities, the attorney's office said in a statement.
However, between 2014 and 2020, Michael Dube made employment decisions, negotiated business arrangements, and participated in managing the laboratory, violating the previous ruling against him. During the six years, Medicare, Virginia Medicaid, Kentucky Medicaid, and Tennessee's Medicaid program, called TennCare, made $8.5 million in payments to the lab. He also received $441,646 in kickbacks for referring patients to third parties for services that were paid by federal programs.
Both Regan and Michael Dube pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud earlier this year and will pay $9.0 million plus interest split between fines, restitution, forfeiture, and special assessments. Michael Dube will be sentenced on Feb 11, 2021.