A Pennsylvania business owner has agreed to plead guilty in a $127 million kickback scheme which involves his genetic testing labs. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on 10th December that Ravitej Reddy is scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges that he conspired with out-of-state marketing companies to pay bribes for lucrative lab tests at his two testing facilities. Anappeal hearing is scheduled for 10th January 2020.

Reddy who is the owner of Personalized Genetics LLC in Pittsburgh and Med Health Services Management in Monroeville, was charged on November 26. The case involves two types of genetic testing, one supposed to detect a high risk of cancer and another supposed to help predict the effectiveness of certain medications in particular patients.

According to court documents, Reddy and his co-conspirators had paid bribes to marketers who induced thousands of Medicare patients around the country to submit cheek swabs for genetic testing; also paid bribes to a Georgia telemedicine company whose doctors wrote false prescriptions for the testing and billed Medicare even though the samples had to be tested by outside labs as Reddys labs lacked the proper equipment.

Prosecutors said that Reddys labs billed Medicare more than $127 million between May 2018 and April 2019, with compensationsadding upto $60 million.

U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady has said Reddy and his “partners in crime” coordinated a “sophisticated, nationwide kickback scheme.”Reddy and his lawyers have not yet commented on the case.

Source: India West