The CEO and medical director of Fast Lab Technologies have been arrested for allegedly orchestrating a $500 million scheme to defraud Medicare, Medicaid, TriCare and other insurers by billing for COVID-19 testing services that were never provided, the Justice Department announced in a July 31 news release.
What happened?
- Fast Lab operated a website offering “free” COVID-19 tests in exchange for insurance information. CEO Cemhan Biricik and Medical Director Martin Perlin, MD, allegedly used that data to submit fraudulent claims for both rapid antigen and PCR tests, often billing multiple dates for each patient.
- The claims falsely stated that medical professionals had observed antigen tests, collected saliva samples, and performed PCR testing. In reality, most antigen tests, if taken at all, were done at home without oversight, no saliva samples were collected and no PCR tests were conducted.
- Dr. Perlin allegedly approved these tests without any physician-patient relationship, and Fast Lab is accused of submitting claims even before test kits were delivered.
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