To Settle False Claims Act Allegation, Branford Lab's Owners, Officers Must Pay $1.2M: Justice Department

BRSNFORD, CT — Branford-based Genco Lab and its owners and officers, Paul Conroy, Tricia Conroy and Charles Orefice entered into a civil settlement agreement with the federal and state governments and agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle allegations that they submitted false and fraudulent claims to government health care programs for medically unnecessary urine drug tests, according to David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut,.

Paul Conroy is the majority owner, Orefice is a part owner, and Tricia Conroy is the Chief Operating Officer of Genco Lab, a reference laboratory, Sullivan said.

According to Sullivan, its alleged that Genco and its owners and officers "committed fraud in two ways."

"First, they submitted claims for medically unnecessary urine drug tests for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries residing in sober homes solely for the purposes of 'residential monitoring, which was explicitly prohibited and secondly, they submitted claims for medically unnecessary duplicative urine drug testing," Sullivan said.

According to the federal prosecutor, there are several types of urine drug testing.

"A screening test, also called a 'presumptive' test, detects the presence or absence of certain classes of drugs, such as opiates, cocaine, and amphetamines. A screening test does not measure the specific amount of the drug present in the patient’s urine sample, but provides only a positive or a negative result, indicating the presence or absence of a detectable drug," Sullivan explained. "A confirmation test, also known as a 'definitive' test, is a more precise and more expensive test that determines not only whether a particular drug is detectable in a patient’s urine sample, but also the specific quantity of the drug that is detected."

Sullivan said that the "government alleges that Genco and its owners and officers routinely conducted testing on Medicaid and Medicare patients using both types of tests, at the same time, on the same day."

"No practitioner reviewed the results of the screening test first to determine if it was medically necessary to also utilize the more expensive and precise definitive test," he noted. "Accordingly, government health care programs were routinely billed for both types each time a Medicaid or Medicare patient was tested."

To resolve the governments’ False Claims Act allegations, resolve the governments’ False Claims Act allegations, the U.S. Attorney for CT said, "Genco and its owners and officers have agreed to pay $1,255,825, which covers the time-period from September 2021 through December 2023."

This matter was investigated by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard M. Molot and by Assistant Attorney General Christine Miller of the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General.

People who suspect health care fraud are encouraged to report it by calling 1-800-HHS-TIPS or the Health Care Fraud Task Force at (203) 777-6311.