On March 31, 2015, Federal sentencing of doctors in New Jersey continued re the long-running health care fraud scheme involving Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services (“BLS”). So far, “37 people – 24 of them physicians – have pleaded guilty in connection with the bribery scheme, which its organizers have admitted involved millions of dollars in bribes and resulted in more than $100 million in payments to BLS from Medicare and various private insurance companies,” reported njtoday.net. Online postings by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey corroborate. Conspiring doctors typically took bribes of thousands of dollars each month for a period of years for referring their unsuspecting patients to BLS for lab work.
Since 2010, the stand-alone Health Care and Government Fraud Unit of the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office has recovered more than $635,000,000.00 in health care/government fraud settlements, judgments, fines, restitutions, and forfeitures, reports njtoday.net. No wonder our healthcare costs, insurance premiums, and Medicare are so expensive!
