BOSTON (WHDH) - One of the owners of a New Bedford independent clinical laboratory has been indicted on a range of criminal charges in connection with an alleged Medicaid fraud scheme, Attorney General Maura Healey announced.
William Owens Jr., 60, and Optimum Labs were indicted on charges including Medicaid false claims, larceny over $1,200 under false pretenses and kickbacks, bribery or rebates. The charges came after Healey’s office alleged that most of Optimum’s business was illegally performing urine drug tests for sobriety monitoring purposes at sober homes. According to Healey’s office, Optimum allegedly billed MassHealth for these tests despite the fact that sobriety monitoring tests are deemed unnecessary without doctor referral and thus are excluded from MassHealth coverage.
The AG’s office also alleged that the company referred certain of its urine drugs tests to two other companies in exchange of insurance reimbursements.
Owens and Optimum are alleged to have received over $4.6 million in false claims.
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