Lab Owner Pleads Responsible to $73 Million Medicare Fraud Plot

A lab owner in Florida pleaded guilty August 31 for his involvement in a $73 million Medicare kickback method.

Per a commentary by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Leonel Palatnik, of Palm Seaside County, Florida, admitted to his purpose in a “conspiracy to defraud Medicare by paying kickbacks to a telemedicine company to put collectively for doctors to authorize medically pointless genetic testing.” The tactic took advantage of temporary waivers of telehealth restrictions meant to elongate entry to love Medicare beneficiaries, the commentary acknowledged. Palatnik is a co-owner of Panda Conservation Community, LLC, an organization that owned and operated testing laboratories in Dallas, Texas.

The DOJ announced prices in opposition to Palatnik and his alleged co-conspirator, Michael Stein, the owner of the purported consulting company 1523 Holdings LLC, on Might perhaps well even honest 26 as a fragment of a higher takedown of COVID-19-linked fraud schemes that collectively resulted in $143 million of fraudulent billings.

Per the DOJ commentary, Palatnik acknowledged paying Stein in change for “arranging for telemedicine suppliers to authorize genetic testing orders for Panda’s laboratories. Panda’s homeowners and Stein entered into a sham contract for purported IT and session providers to conceal the beautiful reason of these payments.”

Palatnik pleaded guilty to 1 depend of conspiracy to offer kickbacks and one depend of paying a kickback. He faces as a lot as 15 years in federal penal complex and might maybe even be sentenced November 9. The commentary didn’t mention how Stein pleaded, and the DOJ had no extra command on Palatnik’s case.

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