NEWARK, N.J. – A Virginia diagnostic laboratory will pay $1.4 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting or causing to be submitted claims for genetic tests to Medicare without valid physician oversight, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced today.
According to the contentions of the United States contained in the settlement agreement:
From July 2014 to September 2015, Genetworx Laboratories utilized the services of Seth Rehfuss as a sales representative who persuaded groups of senior citizens in senior housing complexes to submit to genetic testing, despite applicable Medicare rules requiring proper orders from a treating physician for such tests. Genetworx, in turn, submitted claims for payment to Medicare for Rehfuss’s genetic tests performed without valid physician oversight.
Rehfuss, of Somerset, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty in Trenton federal court to a superseding information charging him with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced in May 2019 to 50 months in prison.
Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert; special agents of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Mahoney; and the Cape May County Department of Aging and Disability Services, with the investigation leading to the settlement.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Meyler of the Health Care Fraud Unit in Newark.
The claims settled by this agreement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
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