Missouri gets $99K in Medicaid settlement
Kansas City Business Journal / November 25, 2015
Missouri, along with 49 other states and the federal government, has reached a settlement with Millennium Health Laboratories to resolve allegations of Medicaid fraud.
On Tuesday, the state announced it will receive $99,829 from the $256 million settlement. Missouri’s share of the money is based on the number of tests its Medicaid program paid for compared with the number of tests paid for by other settling states, according to a release.
“This company submitted bills for unreasonable drug and genetic testing over a course of years, diverting millions of dollars from Medicaid,” Attorney General Chris Koster said in a release. “My office is committed to returning taxpayer funds to Missouri’s Medicaid program to provide health care for individuals who otherwise could not afford it.”
As part of the October settlement, Millenium has agreed to pay:
- $227 million to federal health care programs for excessive and unnecessary urine drug testing from Jan. 1, 2008 through May 20, 2015
- $10 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to federal health care programs from Jan. 1, 2012, through May 20, 2015, for genetic testing that was performed routinely and without an individualized assessment of need
- $19.2 million to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to resolve certain administrative actions related to Millennium’s urine drug test billing practices
The allegations resolved were originally brought in lawsuits filed by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act.
The state of Kansas has not yet specified how much it will receive from the settlement.
Millenium Health, formerly Millennium Laboratories, is based out of San Diego, Calif. It is one of the largest urine drug testing laboratories in the United States and conducts business nationwide.