Laboratory Corporation of America, the largest private employer in Alamance County, is currently being investigated by the United States Senate for Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
Senators Chuck Grassley, R–Iowa, of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Max Baucus, D–Mont., of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to the company in early November requesting a response to allegations of cheating the Medicare and Medicaid systems. These "pull–through" practices involve LabCorp potentially offering cheaper services to managed care organizations (MCOs) like health insurance companies in exchange for referrals for laboratory testing.
"The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General has previously issued advisory opinions expressing concerns about the 'pull–through' practice, noting that discount arrangements such as those at issue here are 'particularly suspect,'" Baucus and Grassley wrote to CEO David King.
LabCorp was given until Dec. 1 to submit copies of all its lab services agreements with its five largest managed care organizations and all correspondences between those parties, presentations and reports in reference to pull-through policies and extensive financial data, among numerous other documents. It is unclear whether the allegations have been refuted, but a staff member of the Judiciary Committee said the files had not been submitted.
Cigna, Aetna, Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Quest Diagnostics Incorporated are also under investigation. The fraud may amount to billions of dollars, according to a report in the Times-News.
"As the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, we take seriously our responsibility to protect the interests of our nation's Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and the federal health care programs from waste, fraud and abuse," the senators wrote.
Despite extensive efforts to contact LabCorp, The Pendulum was unable to reach the company for comment.