Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Myriad Settles Anti-Kickback Lawsuit, per 360DX

360DX runs an open-access article re a lab industry legal settlement, and it's worth skimming.

First, Myriad Genetics settled this with no admission of error.  

According to 360Dx, the case, which dates back to at least 2020, had to do with fair market value payments to providers for services and other financial agreements.   360Dx states Myriad settled for about $45M.  It had to do with the Crescendo business unit.  

Second, one thing to track is that disputes about payments, kickbacks, fair value, etc, can get complicated and expensive even when DOJ is not involved.

Third, the lawsuit is a whistleblower (qui tam) lawsuit, where a private party can bring a case in the name of the government and share in future settlements or repayments.  One might think, "Who would know about this and complain about it?" and cases like this show that well, it's anybody in the room.  

See a 2019 case where Myriad settled (per article, for $9M) with "a non traditional relator" who was a Medicare contractor employee.  This article concludes, "At a minimum, organizations should remain cognizant that the universe of potential FCA relators is not limited to their own employees, but may instead include the very officials and contractors with whom they interact when submitting claims for payment to the government."  Add staff in physician's offices, hospital billing or compliance staff, etc.



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Myriad bought Crescendo for $270M in 2014 and resold it in 2021 to LabCorp for $150M.