Maryland Lab Owner Convicted in $18.7M Medicare Fraud: Respiratory Testing Scheme Targeted Nursing Homes
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on October 20 that a federal jury in Maryland had convicted laboratory owner Patrick Britton-Harr the day before. Prosecutors said his company, Provista Health, offered COVID-19 screening to nursing homes during the pandemic but fraudulently billed Medicare more than $18.7 million for expensive respiratory pathogen tests that residents did not need, physicians did not order, and, in many cases, were never performed.
The jury convicted Britton-Harr of five counts of health care fraud and one count of transactional money laundering. Prosecutors said he used the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle, including a $112,500 Porsche 911 and $25,000 monthly mortgage payments on his Annapolis waterfront mansion.
Britton-Harr faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled, and a federal district judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the FBI. U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes for the District of Maryland and FBI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said their offices remain committed to rooting out fraud against taxpayers.
Trial evidence showed that after other laboratories performed the COVID tests, Britton-Harr billed Medicare separately through Provista Health for so-called respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) tests he claimed were run at his Arizona laboratory; over six months he billed $18.7 million, of which Medicare paid more than $7.2 million. He directed inexperienced employees, including family members and student interns, to bill test by test, and billing continued even after the Arizona lab had closed and its equipment was gone, including charges for residents who had already died. Britton-Harr is 42 and from Annapolis.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 联邦调查局总部大楼（资料图，本案由 FBI 与卫生与公众服务部监察长办公室调查）/ FBI headquarters building (file photo; the FBI investigated this case with HHS-OIG). Photo via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
