Starting in 2017, Mohammed Kazim Ali, along with his co-conspirator Justin Hanson, carried out a three-year scheme involving illegal kickbacks, according to a Jan. 27 news release from the Justice Department. They paid the owner of a substance use treatment clinic to refer Medicaid and Medicare patients for urine drug testing.
The investigation revealed that Mr. Ali and Mr. Hanson paid more than $400,000 in kickbacks to secure these referrals. The urine drug tests were neither ordered by a physician nor medically necessary for the patients’ treatment.
In one instance, a physician discovered that his credentials were being used without authorization to order these tests. Despite being instructed to stop, Mr. Ali continued to process and bill for tests fraudulently ordered under the physician’s credentials.
As a result of the scheme, Medicaid and Medicare paid the lab over $2.2 million for unnecessary tests. Mr. Ali personally received more than $800,000 during the operation.
In addition to his prison sentence, Mr. Ali will be barred from participating in Medicaid and Medicare programs and must pay a $75,000 fine. His lab, Noah Associates, has also been shut down.
