News Briefs: January 17, 2022

UC San Diego Health, the academic health system of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), paid $2.98 million to settle false claims allegations over ordering medically unnecessary genetic testing paid for by Medicare, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Jan. 11.[1] According to the settlement, the government alleged “it has certain civil claims against UCSD arising from UCSD’s ordering and submitting referrals for medically unnecessary genetic testing performed by the genetic testing labs CQuentia Arkansas Labs, CQuentia NGS, and Total Diagnostic II (‘the CQuentia labs’), during the period from December 2015 through October 2019, which the United States contends caused false claims to be presented by the CQuentia labs to Medicare for payment of medically unnecessary genetic tests.” There is no admission of liability in the settlement. In a statement, UC San Diego Health said: “Working at the forefront of patient care sometimes involves the use of new technologies from emerging companies. When UC San Diego Health learned that the Department of Justice had concerns about one of our technology providers, we fully cooperated and promptly resolved the matter. The DOJ’s settlement announcement alleges that our doctors ordered tests from a company that then allegedly made false claims about those orders. This settlement does not assign any liability to UC San Diego Health and provides a prompt resolution that allows us to continue our focus on providing outstanding care for patients.”

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