The fallout from a 2021 Federal investigation into Spring Hill-based Crestar Labs is continuing with a new 40-count second superseding indictment that has charged eight people in a Medicare and Medicaid fraud conspiracy across six states.
As previously reported, the Spring Hill lab was a self-described “diagnostic reference laboratory” that federal prosecutors allege was involved in a fraudulent $86 million Medicare billing scheme.
In June 2021, the lab’s owner and Chief Executive Officer, Fadel Alshalabi, of Waxhaw, N.C., was arrested in Chicago, Illinois, and charged with aiding and abetting as well as with violating the federal anti-kickback statute.
In December 2021, Elizabeth Turner, the owner of Kentucky telemedicine company Advanced Tele-Genetic Counseling (“ATGC”), plead guilty to conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks.
According to the United States Department of Justice, patients were targeted by way of door-to-door marketing, senior citizen fairs and nursing homes, administering mouth swab tests in exchange for kickbacks paid by Crestar Labs, all with the knowledge of the co-conspirators that the tests were fraudulent.