ALJ Upholds OIG Exclusion Determination

On August 17, 2018, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for the Departmental Appeals Board upheld OIG's 15-year exclusion of Karim Maghareh, Ph.D. (Maghareh), and BestCare Laboratory Services, LLC (BestCare), Webster, Texas, from participation in all Federal health care programs under 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7(b)(7). The ALJ found that Maghareh and BestCare submitted false claims to Medicare for reimbursement of travel costs associated with the collection of samples on which BestCare performed laboratory tests. Specifically, BestCare improperly billed Medicare for trained personnel travel, but instead used commercial airline flights to ship samples that were unaccompanied by trained personnel. Senior Counsels Lauren Marziani, Tamara Forys, and David Fuchs represented OIG. News Release

Read more on oig.hhs.gov

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