The government seems to have taken all the necessary steps to get rid of the paid and unnecessary test. As per the reports, two diagnostic firms in the country have been fined with a whopping $48.5 million for conducting unnecessary medical tests on patients.
Both of these firms used to get the support from local doctors who would send patients to them, just to earn extra commission.
Both the companies named Singulex and Diagnostics Laboratory (HDL) are active in cardiovascular disease testing. As per the reports, the government found both the companies guilty of conducting unnecessary tests, for which it charged HDL with $47 million fine, and Singulex with $1.5 million. To everyone’s shock, neither of these companies have expressed any shock or guilty about this decision of the government.
The information was first made available by the US Department of Justice, which unveiled in a statement that both of these companies were found guilty of conducting unnecessary tests on all the customers.
These customers were referred to them by a few local doctors who were paid as much as $10-$17 as a commission for referring each patient. Those doctors billed several prominent health programs like Medicare to make the patients appear for these tests.
The US Department of Justice has also unveiled that both the companies have ensured to drop such unethical practices in the future. Both of them have agreed to sign agreements with the authorities to follow the right way.
As per the reports, their services and practices are subjected to review by the Department of Health and Human Services. If the department finds any of their services misleading, then it can take the necessary action without any prior notice.
The Department of Justice has recovered more than $23.9 billion since 2009 from the companies that follow unethical practices.